..^*^" 


BL  225  .B87  1883 
Burr,  E.  F.  1818-1907 
Ecce  terra 


ECCE  TERRA; 


OR, 


THE  HAND  OF  GOD  IN  THE  EARTH, 


BY   THE 

Rev.    E.    F.  ■  BURR,  D.  D., 

Author  of  "  Ecce  Ccelum,"  "  Pater  Mundi,"  etc. 


Nihil  rerum  humanarum  sine  Dei  Manu  fieri  putabat. 


PHILADELPHIA  : 

PRESBYTERIAN   BOARD   OF   PUBLICATION, 

1334   CHESTNUT   STREET. 


COPYRIGHT,    1883,    BY 

THE   TRUSTEES    OF   THE 

PRESBYTERIAN    BOARD    OF    PUBLICATION. 


ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED. 


Westcott  &  Thomson, 
Sto-eotypers  and  Electrotypcrs. 


PREFACE. 


The  characters  which  a  divine  Hand  once  traced  on 
the  walls  of  Belshazzar's  palace  have  all  disappeared. 
The  walls  themselves  are  gone.  If  the  broken  mate- 
rials could  now  be  found,  it  would  be  quite  impossible, 
by  any  art  or  chemistry,  or  other  science  known  to  us, 
to  discover  the  faintest  trace  of  those  radiant  words 
which  so  dazzled  the  court  of  Babylon. 

Not  so  with  the  characters  which  a  divine  Hand 
has  traced  on  the  walls  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth. 
These  walls  are  still  standing,  apparently  as  strong 
and  fair  as  ever.  Some  of  the  inscriptions  on  them 
are  as  legible  as  when  first  made.  Others,  like  the 
original  writing  of  some  palimpsest,  have  been  thickly 
overwritten  by  clumsy  later  scribes  till  it  is  hard  to 
make  out  the  nobler  underlying  scripture.  And  others 
still  were  originally  traced  in  lines  that  were  never 
meant  to  be  visible  to  men,  save  when  warmed  by  the 
fires  of  an  earnest  piety  or  touched  by  the  chemistry 
of  a  reverent  science.  But,  in  one  state  or  another,  all 
these  heavenly  scriptures  are  still  extant,  and  may,  with 
suitable  pains,  be  read  and  interpreted. 

I  am  no  Daniel.  Yet  I  have  ventured,  in  Ecce 
Ccehnn,  to  attempt  the  reading  and  interpreting  of 
some  of  the  divine  inscriptions  on  the  sky.  In  the 
present  volume  I  attempt  a  similar  work  for  the  earth. 

3 


4  .  PREFACE. 

But  not  after  the  former  manner.  This  would  require 
me  to  summarize  all  the  sciences  that  deal  with  the 
earth.  But  assuming  (what  I  have  endeavored  to 
show  in  other  volumes)  that  there  is  a  personal  God, 
and  that  he  has  given  the  Christian  Scriptures,  I  first 
seek  to  show  that  the  earth  is  thickly  covered  with  a 
divine  handwriting  by  showing,  in  a  general  way,  that 
the  hand  of  God  is  active  in  every  event,  and  conse- 
quently in  every  earthly /??r/,  inasmuch  as  every  fact  is 
an  event  or  includes  many  events.  But  to  show  this 
is  far  from  being  enough.  For  many  reasons  the  gen- 
eral doctrine  of  a  universal  divine  activity  in  the  world, 
when  accepted,  is  not  as  real  and  impressive  to  our 
thought  as  it  is  desirable  to  have  it.  The  natural  way 
of  meeting  this  difficulty  is  by  (ist)  setting  aside  the 
chief  apparent  objections  to  the  doctrine;  (2d)  bring- 
ing forward  its  chief  points  of  harmony  with  the  con- 
stitution and  course  of  nature;  (3d)  instancing  decisive 
examples  of  divine  action,  especially  of  the  larger  and 
more  striking  sort.  Examples  are  the  eye  of  philos- 
ophy. 

Accordingly,  this  is  the  way  I  have  chosen.  In 
using  it  I  have  drawn  freely  from  history,  science  and 
Scripture,  as  being  parallel  authorities.  The  reader 
who  can  freely  accept  them  all  has  an  evident  advan- 
tage, so  far  as  strength  of  impression  is  concerned  ; 
but  whoever  is  not  prepared  to  do  this,  let  him  take 
the  fractional  light  that  is  left  him  and  make  the  most 
of  it.  It  is  better  than  none.  And  it  may  lead  him  to 
more  light,  as  even  a  lantern  may  lead  to  an  illuminated 
palace. 

Lyme,  Connecticut. 


CONTENTS 


I. 

PAGE 

THE  PARALLEL  RAYS 7 


II- 

GENERAL  FACT  REVEALED 23 

III. 
NEED  OF  FURTHER  ILLUSTRATION 35 

IV. 

ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES 53 

Part  First. — Great  Facts  not  Inconsistent. 


V. 

ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES 89 

Part  Second. — Great  Facts  Positively  in  Harmony. 

6 


6  CONTENTS. 

VI. 

PAGE 

ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES 121 

Part  Third. — Great  Facts  Positively  Demanding — 

1.  Matter 124 

2.  A  Habitable  Globe      129 

3.  Lower  Organisms 137 

4-  Man 143 

5.  Insignia  Common  to  Organic  Species 162 

6.  A  Great  Unity 183 

7.  Language 191 

8.  Universal  Faiths 197 

9.  Sacred  Writings 202 

ID.  Moral  Wonders 221 

11.  Miracles 229 

12.  A  Marvelous  History 245 


I. 


THE  PARALLEL  RAYS. 


ECCE    TERRA, 


I. 

THE  PARALLEL  RAYS 


H 


ISTORY  holds  a  high  place  in  public 
esteem.  And  deservedly.  It  is  both 
entertaining  and  useful  in  a  KiQ-h  deorree.  We 
know  of  no  better  instructor  in  the  science  of 
human  nature,  that  exceedingly  practical  sci- 
ence. In  the  conduct  of  our  affairs  it  gives  us 
the  benefit  of  many  ages  of  experience.  To 
governments  it  is  perpetual  privy  councillor. 
Society  could  hardly  do  without  its  testings  of 
laws,  principles,  and  institutions.  Were  we  de- 
prived of  its  lessons  on  the  perils  which  beset 
society,  and  the  best  methods  of  dealing  with 
those  perils,  it  would  be  the  eclipse  of  a  great 
light — very  much  such  a  disaster  as  one  would 
suffer  if  he  should  lose  from  his  memory  all  the 
records  of  his  past  life  and  be  compelled  to 
pursue  his  way  among  men  with  the  inexperi- 


lO  ECCE    TERRA. 

ence  of  an  infant,  though  with  the  age  of  a 
Methusaleh. 

A  still  higher  place  in  the  public  regard  has 
lately  been  obtained  by  Natural  Science.  Per- 
haps deservedly.  It  gives  a  very  pure  and 
wholesome  pleasure.  It  strengthens,  expands 
and  disciplines  the  intellectual  powers.  As  a 
purveyor  to  the  more  practical  side  of  human 
life  its  uses  are  enormous  and  almost  innumer- 
able. Commerce  sails  safely  on  all  seas  with 
the  help  of  its  chronometers,  nautical  almanacs 
and  star-seekine  instruments.  It  is  the  mother 
of  inventions :  from  its  teeming  womb  come 
the  leading  contrivances  which  have  added  so 
immensely  to  the  safety,  conveniences  and  pow- 
ers of  our  modern  life.  Some  claim  that^  the 
study  of  nature  is  the  creator  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  Certainly  not  a  farmer  ploughs  the 
land,  not  a  sailor  ploughs  the  sea,  not  a  printer 
makes  up  his  forms,  not  a  manufacturer  turns 
-the  power  on  his  looms,  not  a  trader  or  broker 
sends  orders  by  cable,  not  a  sick  man  takes  his 
medicine,  not  a  woman  does  her  housekeeping, 
not  a  day-laborer  works  with  mattock  or  hod, — 
not  a  person,  whatever  the  name  or  work  in 
this  toiling  and  moiling  and  swift-handed,  swift- 
footed  civilization  of  ours,  but  is  immensely  a 
debtor  (though  he  is  often  mysteriously  igno- 
rant of  the  fact)  to  the  sciences  of  nature.     The 


THE   PARALLEL   RAYS.  II 

peasant  has  become  a  king.  We  make  by  mil- 
lions what  we  used  to  make  by  units.  We  fly 
where  we  used  to  creep.  Years  of  work  are 
condensed  into  moments.  Distant  countries 
say  daily  Good-Mornings  to  each  other  across 
the  oceans.  We  ride  through  the  seas  or  under 
them,  over  cities  or  under  them,  as  we  please. 
Science  has  set  to  work  for  us  workmen  more 
fleet,  tireless,  powerful,  and  yet  tractable,  than 
ever  Oriental  genii,  or  even  the  gods  of  the 
Greeks  and  Romans,  were  supposed  to  be. 
Our  fathers  of  only  a  few  generations  back, 
suddenly  brought  down  to  our  times,  would 
think  them  almost  miraculous.  Men  now  liv- 
ing have  almost  seen  with  their  own  eyes  the 
time  when  the  announcement  of  some  signal 
discovery  was  sure  to  find  a  profoundly  incred- 
ulous, if  not  scoffing,  public ;  now,  that  public 
is  almost  ready  to  accept  on  demand  the  im- 
possible without  question  ;  it  has  seen  actually 
realized  so  many  astonishing  and  unbelievable 
things.  With  eyes  aflame  and  uplifted  hands 
we  stand  gazing  earthward  and  heavenward, 
and  exclaim,  ''What  next?''  And  we  shall  ac- 
cept it  when  it  comes,  though  it  be  the  Seven 
Stars  or  the  Seven  Thunders. 

A  still  higher  place  in  the  public  regard  than 
is  held  by  history,  and  even  by  natural  science 
in  its  most  genuine  and  useful  forms,  is  claimed 


12  ECCE    TERRA. 

by  Christians  for  the  Christian  Scriptures.  Shall 
I  not  say,  Deservedly  ?  Beyond  all  comparison 
the  Bible  is  the  greatest  impersonal  benefactor 
the  world  has  ever  seen.  This  follows  at  once 
from  the  fact  (which  I  have  sought  to  make 
plain  in  another  volume)  that  the  Book  is  a 
Divine  Message.  This  Message,  as  being 
largely  history,  has  the  same  sort  of  uses  with 
other  history,  though  in  much  larger  degrees 
on  account  of  its  far  pfreater  reliableness  and 
wiser  discriminations ;  and  ministers  various 
pleasure,  wholesome  instruction,  just  views  of 
human  nature  and  invaluable  suggestions  on 
the  management  of  states  and  families,  as  well 
as  of  individual  life.  As  being  largely  science 
(for  it  gives  us,  though  in  popular  forms,  the 
principles  of  the  most  effulgent  and  useful  of 
all  the  sciences,  that  of  God  and  duty),  it  has 
the  same  sort  of  uses  with  other  science,  only 
in  much  larger  degrees,  owing  to  its  vastly 
greater  importance,  and  breadth  of  application, 
and  variety  of  literary  form ;  and,  as  the  most 
universal  of  all  textbooks,  has  been  more  of  an 
educational  force  among  the  masses,  more  stim- 
ulative of  thought  and  discussion  and  eloquence 
and  philosophy  and  literature,  and  even  the  fine 
arts,  than  any  other  book.  That  it  wrestles 
mightily  against  those  gross  vices  and  crimes 
which  exhaust  the  body,  fill  prisons,  burden  the 


THE   PARALLEL  RAYS.  1 3 

public  with  taxes  and  strike  at  the  very  vitals 
of  society,  goes  without  saying ;  and  it  is  equally 
plain  that  it  frowns  on  envies,  jealousies,  selfish- 
nesses, hatreds  and  all  those  evil  passions  which 
do  so  much  to  vex  and  disfigure  human  hearts, 
disturb  the  peace  of  communities  and  prepare 
the  way  for  the  worst  deeds.  We  see  in  the 
Book  the  guardian,  not  to  say  the  founder,  of 
homes  and  of  all  the  home  virtues — of  parental 
authority,  filial  dutifulness,  family  concords,  and 
fidelities  of  every  name.  It  beckons  men  to 
all  the  traits  of  good  neighborhood  and  good 
citizenship.  If  families  and  states  do  not  live 
in  harmony  with  each  other,  and  in  the  inter- 
change of  all  delightful  courtesies  and  good 
offices,  it  is  not  the  fault  of  the  Bible.  It  al- 
most scourges  them  to  such  things.  It  is  the 
foe  of  social  excesses  and  disorders  of  all  sorts; 
the  upholder  of  law ;  the  father  and  mother  of 
industry,  prudence,  good  faith  and  business  in- 
tegrity. It  says  to  rogues,  whether  mature  or 
incipient,  whether  individuals  or  corporations 
or  states.  Stop  Thief! — says  it  with  a  majesty  of 
emphasis  such  as  the  united  voices  of  all  man- 
kind could  not  compass — and  with  the  same 
majestic  and  menacing  voice  warns  us  off  from 
trespassing  on  each  other's  rights  in  all  direc- 
tions. Behold  its  great  placard  frowning  con- 
spicuously over  the  fences  of  all  private  prop- 


14  ECCE    TERRA. 

erty — itself  the  highest  fence  of  all — saying,  No 
Thoroughfare!  And  yet  behold  the  friend  alike 
of  labor  and  capital,  of  the  peasant  and  the  peer, 
of  the  masses  and  the  magistrate ! — the  only 
daysman  that  can  successfully  lay  hand  upon 
them  both. 

But  the  Bible  is  not  content  with  negations. 
To  its  '' Thotc  shall  not''  it  proceeds  to  add, 
"  Thou  shaltr  It  summons  men  to  all  mutual 
helpfulness.  They  must  treat  each  other  as 
brothers.  They  must  be  compassionate  and 
loving  as  well  as  just,  free-handed  as  well  as 
free-hearted.  So  it  has  become  the  founder 
and  chief  supporter  of  almost  all  the  humane 
and  educational  institutions  and  private  char- 
ities which  are  so  great  a  glory  of  our  time. 
Hospitals,  reform  schools,  ragged  schools,  in- 
firmaries for  the  blind  or  intemperate  or  idiotic, 
homes  for  the  aged  poor  or  orphans  or  incur- 
ables,— what  an  immense  variety  of  such  things 
in  every  Bible  land !  Christendom,  especially 
where  the  Bible  is  most  diffused  and  influential, 
is  studded  with  public  charities  almost  as  the 
sky  is  with  stars.  Every  Bible  Christian,  doing 
good  to  all  as  he  has  opportunity,  is  an  incor- 
porated benevolent  institution  endowed  with 
unlimited  privileges  of  traveling  and  self-sup- 
port. Were  the  world  stripped  of  the  educa- 
tional chairs  and  fellowships   and  lectureships 


THE   PARALLEL   RAYS.  15 

which  the  Bible  has  created,  our  unbeHeving 
scientists  would  find  their  financial  foundations 
almost  wholly  swept  away.  They  would  have 
no  platform  from  which  to  attack  the  Bible. 
They  sit  at  its  table  and  eat  its  bread,  and  then, 
worse  than  an  Arab,  waylay  and  strike  at  their 
generous  host.  It  is  the  old  story,  old  as  Judas  : 
''  He  that  eateth  bread  with  me  has  lifted  up 
the  heel  against  me." 

The  Bible  has  been  the  main  factor  in  making 
the  difference  that  exists  between  Christendom 
and  Dahomey.  It  would  be  hard  to  point  out 
any  necessity,  utility  or  ornament  of  our  homes 
that  does  not  credibly  say  ''  Mother !"  to  the 
Bible,  and  is  not  daily  carried  in  its  arms  and 
fed  at  its  breasts.  For  one  thing,  were  woman 
put  back  into  the  position  from  which  the  Bible 
has  raised  her,  what  an  eclipse  we  should  have! 

The  Bible  is  the  greatest  and  cheapest  of  all 
known  civilizers.  This  is  denied  by  some  who 
have  much  to  say  about  Advance  and  Progress, 
and  who  are  fond  of  representing  religion  as  the 
foe  of  such  things ;  but  it  is  open  to  all  observa- 
tion that  the  little  finger  of  the  gospel  is  thicker 
than  the  loins  of  all  these  men  put  together  as 
to  practical  work  in  behalf  of  humanity.  Our 
Bible-sent  and  Bible-bearing  missions  have  re- 
duced rude  languages  to  writing,  created  in 
them  a  vast  and  pure  literature,  founded  educa- 


l6  ECCE    TERRA. 

tional  institutions,  revolutionized  the  healing  art, 
suggested  wise  laws,  relieved  and  prevented 
famines,  pestilences,  wars  and  superstitions; 
poured  out  long-accumulating  treasures  of  art, 
science,  invention  and  comfort  with  free  hand 
into  the  lap  of  heathendom.  In  so  doing  they 
have  wonderfully  pushed  outward  the  luminous 
outposts  of  civilization,  and  are  fast  carrying  the 
nineteenth  century  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

Besides  what  it  does  directly  with  its  own 
hand  for  the  various  secular  interests  of  the 
world,  the  Bible  has  been  a  great  pioneer  and 
caster-up  of  highways  for  all  sorts  of  benef- 
icent agencies.  They  best  see  how  to  work 
by  the  light  that  shines  from  its  face.  Indeed, 
it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  it  furnishes  the 
only  foundation,  broad  and  strong,  on  which 
Science  and  other  human  benefactors  can,  for 
any  length  of  time,  securely  stand,  let  alone 
work.     Without  it,  Omnia  rimnt  in  pejus. 

While  thus  vigorously  shooting  their  rays 
into  the  darkness  of  distant  lands,  our  Bible 
missions  have  reflected  great  light  upon  their 
own.  They  have  opened  new  highways  for 
Christian  commerce,  new  markets  for  Christian 
manufactures,  new  channels  to  wealth,  comfort 
and  power  for  Christian  peoples.  While  busy 
in  carrying  the  gospel  to  every  creature,  they 
do  not  fororet  to  send  back  to  their  native  shores 


THE   PARALLEL   RAYS.  1 7 

brilliant  contributions  to  Geography,  Ethnol- 
ogy, Archaeology,  Geology,  Natural  History, 
Philology  and  other  sciences.  In  short,  the  ser- 
vices which  the  Bible  has  rendered  to  the  sec- 
ular interests  of  mankind  are  wonderfully  great. 
All  other  benefactors  are  but  echoes  and  shad- 
ows of  this.  Never  a  cornucopia  so  large  and 
full  as  that  which  it  holds — never  one  so  freely 
emptied  in  every  direction ;  for  this  Briareus 
has  and  uses  a  hundred  hands  for  its  glorious 
distributions.  Were  the  Bible  quite  without 
religious  pretensions,  it  still  ought  to  be 
crowned  as  the  foremost  philanthropist  the 
world  has  ever  seen. 

Shall  we  call  that  useful,  brilliant  and  reveal- 
ing thing  named  History,  Light?  At  least  a 
ray.  It  illumines  the  past,  and,  by  reflection, 
the  present,  and  even  the  future. 

Shall  we  call  that  more  useful,  brilliant  and 
revealinor  thincr  termed  Natural  vScience,  Z?>///.^ 
At  least  a  ray.  It  reveals  the  laws  of  material 
nature.  In  so  doing  it  largely  reveals  the  Au- 
thor of  nature — also  innumerable  sources  of 
comfort,  profit  and  power.  All  sensible  people 
allow  that  it  is  an  illustrious  illuminator  of  our 
times,  and  some  even  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  in 
comparison  with  it  there  is  no  other. 

Shall  we  call  that  most  useful,  brilliant  and 
revealing  thing  known  as  the  Bible,  Light?    At 


1 8  ECCE    TERRA. 

least  a  ray.  I  would  much  prefer  to  call  it  a 
sheaf  oi  rays;  brilliant  benefactor  of  the  world 
as  it  is,  grandest  illuminator  of  dark  lands  and 
times.  It  throws  more  light  on  the  character 
and  will  of  God,  on  the  nature  and  destiny  of 
man,  on  what  constitutes  a  wise  and  righteous 
ordering  of  life,  than  does  anything  else  we 
know  of.  Nothing  else  can  so  brighten  the 
world's  glooms,  whether  of  sorrow  or  of  sin. 
While  it  illumines  this  world,  it  discovers  to  us 
two  other  worlds  beyond  this,  and  faithfully 
shows  the  two  paths  that  conduct  to  these 
final  and  w^idely-differing  homes  of  mankind. 

History,  Natural  Science,  the  Christian  Script- 
ures,— certainly  these  three  illuminators  of  our 
times  are  entitled  to  be  called  at  least  so  many 
rays  of  light.  Are  they  parallel  rays — and  so, 
when  made  to  enter  the  eye  at  the  same  time, 
mutually  corroborative  ? 

What  is  the  supreme  drift  of  the  Bible  ? 
What  is  the  great  end  toward  which  its  Old 
Testament  and  New,  its  histories  and  poetries 
and  parables  and  epistles,  its  examples  and  in- 
structions and  exhortations,  tend  ?  Certainly 
not  its  secular  uses.  Many  and  great  as  these 
are,  they  are  merest  ciphers  by  the  side  of 
its  religious  use.  So  to  manifest  God  and  his 
crovernment  as  to  brinor  men  to  honor,  love  and 
serve  him, — this  is  evidently  the  Gulf  Stream 


THE   PARALLEL   RAYS.  I9 

to  whose  warm  bosom  all  other  currents  are 
drawn  and  made  tributary. 

It  is  but  reasonable  to  suppose  that  Natural 
Science  and  History  have  at  bottom  a  like  relig- 
ious bearing.  This  notwithstanding  some  pro- 
fessional students  of  these  branches  of  knowl- 
edge have  been  anything  but  religious,  and 
have  even  claimed  that  their  studies  teach  away 
from  God  and  his  government  instead  of  to- 
ward them.  We  ought  not  to  be  surprised  at 
such  claims.  Is  it  a  new  thing  for  men  to  mis- 
interpret and  pervert  the  plainest  and  best  of 
things  ?  Despite  the  bitter  tongues  and  pens 
of  those  men,  and  their  more  bitter  example, 
the  stress  of  the  reasonable  study  of  nature  and 
history,  as  well  as  of  the  Bible,  is  strongly  to- 
ward setting  in  a  striking  light  the  existence, 
perfections  and  government  of  God.  It  ought 
to  be  so ;  every  intelligent  Christian  knows  that 
it  is  so.  Our  case  is  that  of  people  living  in  a 
land  all  of  whose  rivers  and  mountain-rano-es 
descend  on  a  common  trend  to  a  common  sea, 
and  are  seen  to  do  so  when  one  stations  him- 
self at  a  proper  elevation,  though  their  parallel- 
ism is  not  visible  to  him  who  lives  amid  the  foes 
and  narrow  horizons  of  the  lowlands. 

What  are  Natural  Science  and  History  but 
interpreters  of  nature  and  its  ongoings?  Of 
course,  when  genuine,  they  must  be  thoroughly 


20  ECCE    TERRA. 

in  sympathy  with  nature.  But  every  intelligent 
Christian  believes  that  nature  and  the  Bible,  as 
having  a  common  divine  Author,  must  be  thor- 
oughly in  sympathy  with  each  other.  When 
placed  side  by  side  and  fairly  interpreted  they 
will  be  found  not  only  not  contradictory,  but 
positively  explaining,  confirming  and  enhancing 
each  other.  They  will  be  found  like  parallel 
and  complementary  rays  from  the  same  sun  ; 
which  have  the  same  brilliant  essential  nature, 
move  in  the  same  direction,  encounter  the  same 
obstructions,  obey  the  same  laws,  are  success- 
fully studied  by  the  same  methods,  conspire  to 
produce  the  same  image,  give  together  a  whiter 
and  brighter  image  of  the  luminary  from  which 
they  come  than  either  can  do  by  itself. 

So  History,  Natural  Science,  and  the  Christian 
Scriptures  are  not  only  light  of  various  ray,  but 
the  rays  are  parallel,  and  together  illumine  the 
character  and  ways  of  God  as  neither  could  do 
by  itself.  As  different  children  of  the  same 
parents  may  be  expected  to  show  a  family  like- 
ness; as  different  works  of  the  same  author  may 
be  expected  to  show  certain  common  features 
of  thought,  style  and  influence;  so  it  may  be  ex- 
pected that  God's  book  of  zvords  and  his  book 
of  thing's,  will,  when  properly  set  together,  ex- 
change light  to  mutual  advantage.  What  we 
actually  fmd  different  parts  of  the  Bible  doing 


THE   PARALLEL    RAYS.  21 

for  each  other  in  the  way  of  mutual  interpreta- 
tion and  enforcement  (and  this,  as  Christians  all 
know,  is  very  much)  we  may  reasonably  look  to 
see  done  in  a  good  measure  by  the  different 
parts  of  that  larger  Bible  which  includes  the 
whole  scheme  of  thingrs  comin"-  from  the  di- 
vine  Hand,  together  with  its  outworkings 
through  the  ages.  We  shall  see  the  Script- 
ures brighter  from  being  set  in  the  light  of 
the  results  of  historic  and  physical  inquiry,  and 
these  again  brighter  from  being  shone  upon  by 
the  Scriptures.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  many  a 
dark  text  has  been  brilliantly  cleared  up  by  the 
researches  of  the  historian  and  scientist.  At 
least  one  man,  Bishop  Butler,  has  been  made 
illustrious,  not  to  say  immortal,  by  his  success 
in  relieving  the  Bible  of  difficuldes  by  compar- 
ing it  with  the  constitution  and  course  of  nature. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  successful  scientist  or 
explorer  of  the  past  has  often  taken  his  inspira- 
tion and  cue  from  somethine  he  has  found  in 
the  Bible. 

Accordingly,  in  the  present  work  I  propose 
to  show  the  hand  of  God  in  the  earth  by  the 
joint  means  of  Scripture,  Science  and  History 
— believing  that  the  picture  of  this  Hand  given 
by  these  three  parallel  and  complementary  rays 
will  be  a  whiter  and  brighter  one  than  either 
could  give  alone. 


11. 


GENERAL  FACT  REVEALED 


II. 

GENERAL  FACT  REVEALED. 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN  said  in  Congress, 
"  I  have  lived,  sir,  a  long  time ;  and  the 
longer  I  live  the  more  convincing  proof  I  see 
of  this  truth,  that  God  governs  in  the  affairs 
of  men."  Our  illustrious  American  sage  and 
statesman  only  echoed  the  thought  which  the 
illustrious  Roman  Cicero  had  written  out  some 
eighteen  hundred  years  before:  "Quid  enim 
potest  esse  tam  perspicuum,  quam  esse  aliquod 
numen  quo  haec  regantur?" — What  can  be  so 
thoroughly  plahi  as  that  there  is  some  Divinity 
by  whom  these  thijtgs  are  governed? 

An  infinitely  perfect  Being  ought  to  be  the 
ruler  of  the  world.  As  much  is  demanded  of 
him  by  every  consideration  of  justice  and  kind- 
ness. Being  infinite,  he  can  give  us  a  govern- 
ment of  incalculable  value;  and,  being  infinite, 
to  give  such  a  government  will  be  to  him  no 
burden  whatever.  Accordingly,  he  has  given 
it.  As  say  the  Scriptures,  "The  Lord  is  a  great 
King  over  all  the  earth." 


26  ECCE    TERRA. 

More  than  this.  It  would  not  only  be  no 
burden  to  an  infinite  Being  to  maintain  a  royal 
o-overnment  over  the  world,  but  he  can,  just  as 
easily  as  not,  maintain  one  that  deals  powerfully 
with  every  actual  event.  He  is  therefore  sure 
to  do  even  as  much  as  this.  Accordingly,  we 
find  it  to  be  the  tenor  of  Scripture  that  the 
God  who  is  "Governor  among  the  nations"  and 
"directeth  the  steps  of  a  man,"  and  whom  we 
are  to  ask  for  "daily  bread"  and  every  "good 
thing,"  is  one  without  whom  "  not  a  sparrow 
falls,"  who  "  numbers  the  hairs  of  our  heads," 
whose  is  "  the  disposing  of  the  lot  that  is  cast 
into  the  lap " — who,  in  short,  "  worketh  all 
things  after  the  counsel  of  his  own  will ;"  so 
that  universal  Christendom  is  established  in 
the  doctrine  not  only  that  God  is  King,  but  that 
his  hand  potentially  touches  every  event  in  the 
whole  range  of  fact — that  there  is  absolutely 
no  particular,  however  inconsiderable,  which  is 
not  obliged  to  ask  permission  of  his  sover- 
eignty in  order  to  be,  and  around  which,  when 
it  has  come  into  being,  do  not  effulge  and  throb 
his  all- knowing  thoughts  and  the  regulative 
forces  of  his  sleepless  and  tireless  monarchy. 

It  should  be  clearly  noticed  just  what  is,  and 
what  is  not,  implied  in  this  doctrine  of  the  divine 
Hand  in  actual  events.  To  say  that  the  wisdom 
and  power  of  God  are  brought  to  bear  in  a 


GENERAL    FACT  REVEALED.  2J 

commanding  manner  on  every  event ;  that  he 
supervises  and,  so  to  speak,  manipulates  in  a 
royal  manner  whatever  occurs, — is  not  saying 
that  each  event  is  a  just  expression  of  his  pref- 
erences or  that  he  is  active  in  promoting  it. 
His  activity  may  be  that  of  one  who  hates  and 
hinders.  A  government  may  be  fully  as  active 
in  the  way  of  hindering  as  in  that  of  helping. 
A  large  part  of  the  activity  of  every  human 
ruler  consists  in  opposing  and  lessening,  as  far 
as  possible,  undesirable  things.  Perhaps  it 
would  not  be  too  much  to  say  that  our  civil 
governments  commonly  display  more  power  in 
opposing  what  is  wrong  than  in  promoting  what 
is  right.  Their  laws,  their  magistrates,  their 
courts,  their  prisons  and  other  penalties,  their 
armies,  their  police  (that  is  to  say,  their  most 
conspicuous  and  representative  things),  express 
the  principle  of  hindrance  rather  than  that  of 
help.  They  say  to  disorder  and  wrong,  "  We 
will  fight  you  as  well  as  we  can."  And  such 
may  be  the  attitude  of  the  divine  government 
toward  many  things.  The  Scriptures  say  that 
it  is.  The  sceptred  Hand  is  vastly  busy  with 
them ;  it  is  above,  beneath,  on  either  hand,  and 
within  even ;  but  it  is  as  an  enemy.  It  is  our  ex- 
perience as  well  as  Scripture  that  the  best  that 
can  be  done  with  some  things  is  to  fieht  them, 
to  minimize  them,  to  overrule  them.     And  it  is 


28  ECCR    TERRA. 

both  conceivable  and  scriptural  that  the  fight 
may  be  carried  on  by  a  government  that  brings 
even  infinite  resources  into  the  battle,  and  yet, 
owinor  to  moral  and  other  limitations,  be  unsuc- 
cessfijl  in  winning  a  complete  victory.  Actual 
cases  of  this  sort  will  hereafter  be  given.  It 
will  appear  that  there  are  very  many  actual 
events  which  God  neither  assists  nor  favors  in 
any  way,  but  which  he  struggles  against  with 
all  the  forces  he  can  consistently  bring  into  the 
field.  Sins  of  all  sorts  are  such  events.  Every 
one  of  them  is  like  a  pirate  ship  beating  through 

*  stormy  latitudes  and  hunted  down  by  the  fleets 
of  all  nations. 

The  doctrine  of  a  divine  Hand  in  every  event 
gives  the  divine  government,  even  in  this  world, 
a  very  large  field.  Just  think  of  the  number  of 
events  about  us  daily  in  all  the  wide  realms 
of  mineral,  vegetable,  brute  and  human  history! 
Even  what  happens  to  a  single  man  from  sun- 
rise to  sunrise,  including  his  thoughts  and  feel- 
ings, would  make  a  more  ponderous  journal 
than  ever  yet  came  from  human  pen.  But,  like 
the  endless  break  of  waves  on  the  shore ;  like 
the  endless  pulses  in  the  still  more  restless 
ocean  of  air ;  nay,  like  the  light- waves  that 
come  and  go  in  every  direction  with  such  amaz- 
ing swiftness,  numbers  and  complexity  in  that 

i  still    wider  ocean    in  which    all    the    stars   are 


GENERAL   FACT  REVEALED.  29 

islands, — must  be  the  events  of  all  sorts  ever 
taking  place  in  all  quarters  and  histories.  In 
each  of  them,  however  small,  we  are  to  hold 
the  hand  of  God  to  be  royally  active. 

But  this  does  not  express  the  whole  fact. 
Broad  as  must  be  the  divine  government  that 
bears  on  every  actual  event,  it  is  but  narrow  as 
compared  with  that  we  actually  live  under. 
For  this  covers  also  the  undesirable  events 
which  never  become  actual,  but  which  would 
become  so  save  for  its  interference ;  and  we 
have  good  reason  for  thinking  that  the  number 
of  such  events  must  be  very  great.  Every 
good  man,  with  his  small  power  and  wisdom, 
prevents  many  evils  —  suspicions,  slanders, 
hatreds,  quarrels,  frauds,  diseases ;  in  short, 
sins  and  sorrows  of  all  names.  He  hails  them 
while  they  are  yet,  as  it  were,  in  the  offing,  and 
successfully  warns  them  off  from  the  shores  of 
being.  Of  course,  God  with  his  infinite  power 
and  wisdom  can  do  infinitely  more.  Every 
good  civil  government  has  an  eye  on  the 
homely  maxim  that  "An  ounce  of  prevention 
is  better  than  a  pound  of  cure,"  and  manages 
to  prohibit  the  arrival  of  many  public  evils 
which  it  sees  approaching.  Of  Course  the  di- 
vine government,  with  its  immeasurably  greater 
foresight  and  forces  of  all  kinds,  can  prohibit 
to  a  vastly  greater  extent.    Our  modern  society 


30  ECCE    TERRA. 

has  many' great  Institutions,  not  merely  to  alle- 
viate and  cure  existing  evils,  but  also  to  quite 
forestall  others,  to  close  and  bolt  the  gates  of 
the  future  against  them,  to  reach  forth  into  the 
void  and  cancel  their  very  possibility.  This  Is 
really  the  great  philanthropy.  And  it  has  been 
very  successful.  What  It  does,  on  by  no  means 
an  Inconsiderable  scale,  God,  the  greatest  and 
best-equipped  philanthropist  ever  known,  doubt- 
less does  on  a  scale  inconceivably  large.  He 
is  an  optimist,  and  gives  us  the  best  possible 
system.  He  keeps  many  a  litter  of  pests  from 
coming  to  the  birth.  His  amazing  fleets  block- 
ade all  the  coasts  of  being  against  Interloping 
evils  as  no  scanty  dories  of  our  building  and 
ordering  can  do.  It  must  be  that  a  host  of 
sins  and  harms  find  themselves  unable. to  make 
a  landing  through  that  watchful  and  terrible 
leaguer  on   which  the  sun   never  sets. 

Accordingly,  the  Scriptures  call  God  "a 
shield,"  "a  fortress,"  ''a  high  tower,"  "a  Sav- 
iour," "One  mighty  to  save" — epithets  that  viv- 
idly describe  how  largely  he  negatives  evil  for 
individuals  and  communities.  And  so,  the  world 
over,  we  learn  to  pray,  "  Deliver  us  from  evil," 
and  to  believe  that,  bad  as  the  state  of  the 
world  Is,  it  would  have  been  far  worse  had  not 
God  swept  with  his  great  hand  the  expanses 
before  us,  and  laid  waste  to  the  greatest  pos- 


GENERAL   FACT  REVEALED.  3 1 

sible  extent  the  very  seeds  and  possibilities  of 
evil. 

This  general  doctrine  of  a  divine  government 
that  extends  to  all  actual  events,  and  even  vastly 
beyond,  is  illustrated  in  the  Bible  by  a  great  va- 
riety of  examples.  There  is  scarcely  any  sort 
of  thing  we  can  think  of,  actual  or  possible, 
which  is  not  there  instanced  as  touched  poten- 
tially by  the  divine  sceptre.  The  movements 
of  the  heavenly  bodies ;  the  rise  and  fall  of 
nations ;  the  fortunes  and  policies  of  rulers ; 
the  course  of  parties  and  populaces  and  armies; 
victories  and  defeats;  famines  and  pestilences; 
the  course  of  each  individual  life,  its  prosperi- 
ties and  adversities  of  all  sorts  ;  food,  raiment, 
riches,  honor,  health,  long  life,  friends,  influence, 
eloquence,  wisdom,  and  their opposites;  thoughts, 
feelings,  purposes,  sins  and  virtues  in  great  va- 
riety ;  deliverances  from  all  sorts  of  evils ;  con- 
versions, sanctifications,  salvation  ;  all  sorts  of 
things  in  the  inanimate  world,  as  winds,  rains, 
droughts,  storms,  calms,  crops ;  in  short,  the  par- 
ticular things  which  the  Scriptures,  in  one  way 
or  another,  say  are  dealt  with  by  the  divine  gov- 
ernment,— seem  to  cover  by  specimen  the  whole 
field  of  being  and  event.  One  who  will  take 
pains  to  bring  together  the  vast  variety  of  ex- 
amples in  their  Scripture  form  of  statement 
will   feel   himself  forbidden   by  them   to  except 


32  ECCE    TERRA. 

anything  whatever  from  the  stress  of  a  divine 
Hand — from  the  rush  of  suns  and  heavenly 
armies  to  the  ripple  of  a  pool  and  the  beat 
of  an  insect's  wing,  and  even  to  that  dim  waste 
beyond  where  lie  unquickened  only  the  seeds 
and  possibilities  of  the  actual.  So  large  an 
induction  of  particulars  would  be  enough  to 
establish  any  scientific  doctrine.  It  is  enough 
to  establish  the  scriptural  doctrine  of  a  provi- 
dence that  bears  on  the  whole  field  of  actual 
and  possible  event;  that  is,  on  ^v^ry  fact,  for 
every  fact  in  this  world  began  in  an  event,  and 
concerns  us  only  as  being  the  source  of  events. 
I  have  already  briefly  called  attention  to  the 
wonderfulness  of  this  universal  providence.  It 
is  so  beyond  what  human  rulers  can  do  !  Nay, 
it  is  so  beyond  what  our  thought  can  grasp  ! 
If  you  sweep  around  you  a  radius  of  ten  feet 
in  every  direction  you  include  hundreds  of  mil- 
lions of  living  things,  each  of  which  is  having 
at  any  moment  hundreds  of  millions  of  changes, 
chemical,  mechanical,  vital,  spiritual.  How  un- 
equal are  you  to  the  summing  up  of  even  these! 
How  much  more  unequal  to  the  task  of  bend- 
ing the  horizon  of  your  thought  around  the  all 
things  that  are,  have  been,  or  shall  be,  or  shall 
have  been  prevented  from  being,  on  this  an- 
cient, populous,  ever-changing  and  long-endur- 
ing world!     Not  even  an  archangel  could  do  it. 


GENERAL   FACT  REVEALED.  33 

And  yet  all  this  infinity  of  things  and  events 
is  not  only  "  naked  and  open  to  the  eyes  of  Him 
with  whom  we  have  to  do,"  but  they  are  all  ac- 
tually wrought  in  by  his  hand,  as  the  clay  is 
wrought  in  by  the  hand  of  the  potter.  It  is 
not  only  as  if  he  were  a  ^w'a-Eye,  piercing  the 
whole  earth  through  and  through  in  every  di- 
rection with  its  rays,  till  all  its  darkest  nooks 
are  flooded  with  day  and  each  smallest  thing 
shines  like  a  world;  but  it  is  as  if  he -were  a 
Sun-Hand,  grasping  the  whole  great  globe,  so 
that  every  mote  feels  its  throb  and  pressure, 
and  receives  from  it  innumerable  currents  and 
thrills  of  force  and  direction. 

We  are  told  by  some,  that  in  whatever  forms 
force  may  appear,  these  are  all  only  different 
forms  of  one  great  physical,  unintelligent  force, 
whose  essence  is  7nolio7i,  whose  amount  is  al- 
ways the  same,  and  which  is  really  the  sole 
author  of  all  events  from  the  fall  of  a  stone 
to  the  birth  of  a  thought.  It  cannot  be  denied 
that  such  a  conception  has  in  it  an  element  of 
grandeur,  though  we  clearly  see  in  its  womb 
all  the  inanities  and  follies  and  mischiefs  of 
materialism. 

Others  tell  us  that  there  is  no  such  thinor  as 
an  impersonal  cause — that  the  one  all-working, 
ultimate  force  just  spoken  of,  instead  of  being 
a  blind  property  of  matter,  is  really  the  force 


34  ECCE    TERRA. 

of  a  personal  God;  so  that  he  is  the  sole  and 
direct  author  of  everything  that  takes  place  in 
height  or  depth,  in  far  or  near,  in  the  universe 
of  matter  or  mind.  And  this  conception  we 
must  allow  to  have  even  a  grander  element 
than  the  other;  for  certainly  an  infinite  per- 
sonal force  is  grander  than  an  equally  pow- 
erful impersonal. 

But  the  grandest  conception  of  all  is  that 
of  a  universe  of  efficient  material  and  spiritual 
causes  mingled  in  one  seething  ocean  of  ener- 
gies,  but  all  watched  over  and  comprehended 
and  dominated  at  every  point  and  at  every 
moment  by  an  infinite  personal  God.  This 
conception  has  the  majesty  of  a  most  useful 
fact ;  the  others  have  only  such  as  can  belong 
to  a  most  harmful  hypothesis.  This  invests 
nature  with  the  grandeurs  of  religion ;  the 
others  make  religion  impossible.  This  permits 
us  to  think  that  God  has  the  glory  of  perfect 
righteousness ;  the  others  show  us  either  an 
irresistible  Fate  or  a  huge  Person  disfigured 
with  the  blots  and  scars  and  rags  of  a  wicked 
world  which  he  has  made  such.  This  gives  us 
a  glorious  empire ;  the  others  show  us  only  a 
vast  factory. 


III. 

NEED  OF  FURTHER  ILLUSTRATION 


III. 

NEED  OF  FURTHER  ILLUSTRATION. 


THIS  doctrine  of  a  divine  Hand  present 
and  working  in  all  earthly  facts  is  now 
fully  admitted  by  all  who  admit  a  personal  God. 
The  old  Epicureans,  who  supposed  that  Deity 
does  not  even  concern  himself  with  the  affairs 
of  men,  any  more  than  most  of  us  do  with  ants, 
left  no  children.  Not  so  the  Stoics.  Their  de- 
scendants are  everywhere.  Are  not  we  among 
them  ?  Are  not  most  of  us  almost  as  stony  as 
we  are  orthodox  ?  We  freely  allow  that  God 
governs,  and  even  that  there  is  more  or  less 
of  his  government  in  every  actual  event,  and  that 
a  host  of  evil  events  have  been  kept  from  be- 
coming actual  by  his  hand ;  but  in  most  cases 
the  admission  is  merely  intellectual  and  without 
vividness.  We  consent  to  a  cold  abstraction,  to 
Euclid's  triano-les  in  the  oriorlnal  Greek,  to  an 
old-world  fossil  that  has  little  or  nothing  to  do 
with  the  present.  We  bow  distantly  to  a  shadow 
on  the  horizon — a  shadow  which  though  vast  has 
no  weight.     It  influences  neither  our  feelings 

37 


38  ECCE    TERRA. 

nor  our  conduct.  And,  practically,  each  event, 
whether  in  private  or  public  life,  is  viewed  as, 
in  the  last  analysis,  wholly  produced  and  shaped 
by  second  causes.  This  view  is  the  every-day 
working  dress  of  our  thouo^hts  in  which  we  feel 
most  at  home. 

This  is  a  calamity.  We  miss  a  most  elevat- 
ing conception.  We  fail  of  a  great  restraining 
and  reforming  power.  We  do  great  injustice 
to  one  of  the  sublimest,  and  at  the  same  time 
most  useful,  facts  that  ever  challenged  atten- 
tion. 

Can  nothing  be  done  to  break  up  this  most 
hurtful  stupidity?  Is  there  no  way  of  giving  to 
this  great  but  shadowy  divine  Hand  something 
of  the  vividness  of  an  actual  perception  ? 

Certainly  there  is.  Not  a  few  persons  have 
found  this  way,  and  have  come  to  live  daily  as 
in  view  of  the  divine  government.  And  yet  it 
is  not  an  easy  matter,  as  you  may  see  by  notic- 
ing the  ways  in  which  this  government  gener- 
ally acts. 

Through  the  Original  Framework  of 

Things. 
Some  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  divine  gov- 
ernment is  altogether  by  this  means.  They  speak 
as  follows.     In  the  beginning,  God,  having  be- 
fore his  thoughts  all  possible  events,  and  select- 


NEED    OF  FURTHER   ILLUSTRATION.  39 

ino-  such  as  he  saw  it  best  to  have  reahzed, 
created  secondary  causes,  such  in  their  nature, 
number  and  arrangement  as  would  of  them- 
selves produce  in  their  proper  time  and  place 
all  the  good  results  possible  to  his  personal 
activity.  The  system  was  made  self-governing. 
A  divine  government  is  really  brought  to  bear 
on  every  point  of  space  and  mote  of  fact ;  but 
the  government  was  incorporated  in  the  orig- 
inal framework  of  things,  so  that  there  has  been 
no  occasion  for  a  personal  divine  acdon  since 
the  creation,  and  of  course  there  has  been 
none. 

In  favor  of  this  view  it  is  said  that  it  must 
have  been  perfectly  easy  for  an  Infinite  Being 
to  make  such  a  comprehensive,  self-governing 
system  complete  by  one  stroke  of  his  will — that 
to  make  instead  a  system  requiring  all  along 
the  ages  more  or  less  divine  superintendences 
and  acdons,  none  of  them  a  whit  easier  than 
the  comprehensive  one  supposed,  would  be  ir- 
rational and  contrary  to  that  Nature  whose 
observed  habit  is  to  reach  her  ends  without 
superfluous  steps.  To  which  we  may  answer 
that  there  is  no  evidence  that  God  can  make  a 
system  of  second  causes  that,  by  itself,  can  give 
as  complete  results  as  both  himself  and  itself 
can  do — that,  on  the  contrary,  this  is  quite  im- 
probable ;  especially  as  it  would  imply  not  only 


40  ECCE    TERRA. 

that  God  can  make  the  equal  of  himself  so  far 
as  government  is  concerned,  but  make  that 
other  self  out  of  the  gross  and  imperfect  sub- 
stance which  we  call  matter,  together  with  that 
less  gross  but  still  imperfect  substance  we  call 
spirit  in  men  and  brutes. 

Another  reason  given  for  favoring  the  view 
that  represents  the  divine  Hand  as  working 
altogether  through  the  original  structure  of 
things  is,  that  it  alone  gives  full  scope  to  sci- 
ence— science,  which  must  be  permitted  to  as- 
sume that  every  event  is  explainable  by  second 
causes,  and  which  has  succeeded  in  explaining 
by  this  means  so  many  things  once  credited 
directly  to  the  Supreme  Being.  To  this  we 
answer  that  this  view  really  gives  no  more 
scope  to  science  than  does  that  which  conceives 
of  the  system  of  second  causes,  after  its  crea- 
tion, as  still  followed  by  an  active  superinten- 
dence of  the  Creator  through  all  its  history: 
for  this  last  view  does  not  necessarily  suppose 
in  the  system  any  new  force  in  kind ;  only  such 
as  belongs  to  men  and  other  spiritual  beings 
with  intellieence  and  will.  If  the  action  of 
these  lower  spiritual  forces  cannot  be  denied, 
and  does  not  restrict  the  scope  of  science, 
neither  does  the  action  of  a  divine  force.  The 
fact  is,  all  spiritual  forces  have  their  fixed  na- 
tures  and  laws  as   truly  as   has   matter,   only 


NEED    OF  FURTHER   ILLUSTRATION.  4 1 

they  are  widely  different  from  the  material,  and 
harder  to  be  interpreted.  Science  is  quite  at 
liberty  to  do  its  best  at  interpreting  all  these 
laws,  and  at  explaining-  events  by  them  after 
the  most  rigorous  scientific  fashion. 

Did  God,  some  thousands  or  millions  of 
years  ago,  make  his  clock,  wind  it  up,  set  it 
agoing,  and  has  it  been  running  by  itself  ever 
since  totally  without  any  action  on  his  part? 
The  practical  tendency  of  such  a  view  is  greatly 
against  the  truthfulness  of  it.  It  crowds  the 
idea  of  God  and  his  eovernment  into  the  back- 
ground,  into  the  horizon  and  below  it;  in  fact, 
hides  it  behind  a  whole  world  of  secondary  cau- 
sation ;  whereas  the  other  view  brings  us  into 
close  quarters  with  the  great  religious  ideas, 
sets  our  daily  lives  face  to  face  with  the  King, 
and  is  greatly  fitted  to  restrain  and  elevate  us. 
Which  view,  then,  would  God  be  likely  to  lay 
a  foundation  for  in  actual  fact? 

Further,  the  clock- theory  of  the  divine  gov- 
ernment really  negatives  all  evidence  from  na- 
ture of  the  existence  of  a  God.  If  the  present 
system  of  second  causes  is  able  to  get  on  just 
as  well  without  a  God  as  with  him — that  is,  if 
mere  nature  can  by  itself  work  out  all  the  mar- 
velous constructions,  metamorphoses  and  re- 
productions constantly  taking  place — it  is  hard 
to  see  why  it  could  not,  single-handed,  with  its 


42  ECCE    TERRA. 

eternal  atoms,  have  wrought  out  the  first  con- 
structions, supposing  there  were  such. 

But  one  almost  needs  to  apologize  to  a  be- 
liever in  the  Scriptures  for  spending  time  on 
such  arguments.  "  My  Father  worketh  hith- 
erto " — "  known  to  God  are  all  his  works  from 
the  beginning  of  the  world."  The  clock-theory 
of  divine  government  defies  the  whole  tenor 
of  revelation.  The  very  fact  of  a  revelation 
made  at  intervals  through  centuries  defies  such 
a  theory.  Through  Old  and  New  Testaments 
God  appears  as  "  nigh  at  hand  and  not  afar 
off,"  and  no  fair-minded  reader  fails  to  get 
from  the  Book  the  idea  that  the  divine  power 
is  a  current  factor  and  actor  in  all  times. 

But  while  we  deny  that  the  divine  govern- 
ment is  wholly  by  means  of  the  original  struc- 
ture of  the  system,  we  cannot  deny  that  it  is 
partly  so.  Of  course  that  original  structure 
was  meant  to  further  certain  purposes  of  the 
Creator — to  promote,  hinder,  regulate,  the  oc- 
currence of  certain  events.  It  may  not  give  a 
sufficient  force  ;  it  may  and  often  does  require 
to  be  supplemented  by  something  else  ;  but  it 
does  go  to  shape  much  that  occurs.  The  in- 
clination of  the  earth's  axis  necessitates  certain 
consequences  as  to  climate  and  seasons,  and 
was  meant  to  do  so.  The  laws  of  optics,  of 
magnetism,   of  chemistry,   of  meteorology,  of 


NEED    OF  FURTHER   ILLUSTRATION.  43 

health, — we  are  compelled  to  have  more  or  less 
respect  to  all  such  laws,  and  the  Creator  meant 
that  we  should.  Men,  in  all  their  movements, 
must  take  into  account  the  primitive  laws  of 
both  matter  and  mind,  just  as  the  sailor  must 
take  account  of  the  winds  and  currents  and  lee 
shores  in  his  navigation.  First  and  last,  it  is  a 
wonderful  deal  of  governing  that  these  laws  do 
among  men  and  other  living  beings;  among  in- 
animate things  their  authority  is  still  more  com- 
plete. God  meant  it  should  be  so.  And  he 
often  exacts  heavy  penalties  to  enforce  his 
meaning. 


By  Current  Use  of  Second  Causes  as  In- 
struments. 

The  divine  action  may  be  a  remote  link  in 
a  chain  of  causation  or  a  near  one.  The 
wave  that  reaches  us  may  have  been  started 
by  a  stone  a  mile  or  a  foot  away.  The  news  in 
my  ear  may  have  come  through  three  mouths 
or  three  hundred.  Relays  of  messengers  may 
stretch  across  a  town,  a  province  or  a  con- 
tinent. As  man,  even  the  humblest  (and 
even  the  pigmiest  insect),  can  and  does  act 
directly  on  matter,  and  start  chailis  of  sec- 
ondary causation  more  or  less  long  for  the 
purpose    of    controlling    events,    and    finds     it 


44  ECCE    TERRA. 

useful,  not  to  say  indispensable,  to  do  so,  it 
seems  quite  likely  that  God  can  do  and  does 
do  as  much. 

Nay,  the  Bible  says  that  he  has  often  used 
second  causes  for  instruments ;  as  when  he  es- 
tablished subordinate  "  thrones,  principalities 
and  powers;"  sent  angels  on  his  errands; 
commissioned  Moses  for  the  Exodus ;  raised 
up  judges  to  deliver  Israel ;  stirred  up  adver- 
saries to  Solomon ;  smote  backsliding  Israel 
with  ''  the  rod  of  the  children  of  men ;"  made 
Paul  a  "chosen  vessel"  to  himself. 


By  Personally  Suggesting  Ideas  and  Motives. 

The  class  thus  reached  is  vastly  larger  than 
the  last.  It  is  the  whole  animal  kingdom. 
Wherever  intelligence  and  will,  in  any  degree, 
are  found,  there  God  can  sway  actions  by  sug- 
gesting ideas  and  motives,  not  of  the  nature  of 
law,  but  which  go  to  conduct,  perhaps  uncon- 
sciously, in  the  right  direction.  And  this  is 
only  saying  that  he  can  do  what  the  humblest 
man,  and  even  the  humblest  insect,  is  accus- 
tomed to  do  freely.  From  the  king  on  his 
throne  to  the  tiniest  livinof  mote  visible  under 
the  microscope,  each  has  his  motions  influenced 
more  or  less  by  thoughts  which  some  other 
creature,   it  may  be  of   the   puniest,   has   sug- 


NEED    OF  FURTHER    ILLUSTRATION.  45 

gested.  The  chirping  of  a  cricket  can  call  up 
trains  of  thought  that  lead  to  most  important 
actions.  The  struggles  of  a  spider  to  fasten 
its  thread  satisfactorily  actually  started  such 
feelings  and  plans  in  Robert  Bruce  as  won 
back  for  him  his  kingdom.  Men  are  contin- 
ually shaping  the  conduct  and  character  of 
other  men,  especially  of  the  young,  by  sug- 
gesting in  them,  it  may  be  all  undesignedly, 
currents  of  ideas  whose  trend  is  in  the  direc- 
tion desired.  Cannot  God  do  even  vastly  more 
than  other  beings  in  this  way  ?  What  they  do 
with  means  cannot  he  do  without  ?  And  is  it 
not  likely  that  he  finds  useful  a  method  of  con- 
trol which  is  found,  sooner  or  later,  indispen- 
sable to  every  other  being  with  whom  we  are 
acquainted  ? 

Nay,  the  Scriptures  tell  us  that  God  puts  it 
into  the  heart  of  kings  to  fulfill  his  will ;  that 
he  gives  his  people  "  in  the  same  hour  what 
they  ought  to  speak  " — that  is,  words  as  well 
as  ideas;  that  he  puts  thoughts  and  purposes 
into  ravens  that  feed  his  Elijahs,  into  lions 
which  spare  his  Daniels,  into  fishes  which  ap- 
pear where  and  when  wanted  with  tribute- 
money  in  their  mouths.  Dreams  are  but  trains 
of  ideas,  and  though  they  often  "  come  from 
the  multitude  of  business,"  yet  they  sometimes 
have  come  by  the  inspiration  of  God.     "  In  a 


46  ECCE    TERRA. 

dream,  in  a  vision  of  the  night,  .  .  .  then  he 
openeth  the  ears  of  men  and  sealeth  their  in- 
struction." 

By  Direct  Personal  Actions  of  the  Second- 
ary Order;  that  is,  Actions  such  as  Sec- 
ond Causes  are  equal  to  producing,  though 
they  do  not  actually  produce  them. 
We  act  directly  to  bring  about  events — not 
merely  as  bodies,  but  as  spirits.     With  our  own 
hands,  without  any  axe  or  saw  or  other  instru- 
ment, we  bring  about  what  we  want ;  nay,  our 
minds  have    a  way  of  acting    directly  on   the 
matter  composing  our  bodies  and  producing  at 
pleasure  various  movements,  as  when  we  will 
to  move  hand  or  foot.     What  the  human  spirit 
can  do,  and  finds  it  desirable  to  do  largely,  God 
can  do,  and  probably  does.    A  government  that 
undertakes  so  much  as  does  God's  and  that  is 
bound  to  have  things  as  well  done  as  possible, 
will  be  likely  to  avail  itself  of  all  possible  ways 
of  brinor-inof  itself  to   bear  on   events.     But  it 
must  often  happen  that  small  degrees  of  power 
and  pressure  from  the  divine  Hand  will  be  all 
that  is  needed  to  secure  what  is  wanted  or  is 
best — just  as  men  find  that  for  many  purposes 
the  smaller  deofrees  of  their  force  will  answer 
quite  as  well  as,  or  better  than,  the  larger.     It 
is  only  occasionally  that  the  giant  finds  it  neces- 


NEED    OF  FURTHER   ILLUSTRATION.  47 

sary  to  put  forth  all  his  resources  and  do  what 
nobody  else  can  do.     Nine-tenths  of  the  time 
his  actions  are  level  with  the  powers  of  ordinary 
persons.     So   of  governments.     Their  actions 
show  all  grades  of  power,  from  that  expressed 
by  splendid  armies  down  to  that  expressed  by 
the  pettiest  policeman.     And  so,  doubtless,  the 
divine  force  about  us  is  graduated  according  to 
the  work  to  be  done  ;  and  many  things  requir- 
ing but,  as  it  were,  the  lifting  of  a  divine  finger 
to  do  them,  God  does  not  expend  upon  them 
the  whole  breadth  of  his  hand.     It  is  very  like- 
ly that  with  him,  as  with  us,  by  far  the  greater 
part  of  his  direct  actions  bring  into  play  only  a 
small  part  of  his  resources,  and  are  quite  on 
the  plane  of  secondary  causation.     Some  speci- 
mens of  this  are  given  in  Scripture.    God  utters 
an  audible  voice ;  so  does  man.     He  sends  a 
messenger ;  so  does  man.     He  takes  away  life  ; 
so   does   man.      He   shakes   the   earth ;   so   do 
struggling  vapors  and  gases.    He  sent  dreams  ; 
so  do  second  causes,  as  says  the  Scripture  when 
it  says,  "A  dream  cometh  through  the  multitude 
of  business."     A  large  part  of  actions  ascribed 
to  him  are  presumably  not  beyond  the  power 
of  angels  and  devils  if  left  to  themselves.     In- 
deed, the  Bible  attributes  to  evil  spirits  great 
sio-ns    and  wonders  which    mio-ht,  ''  if  it  were 
possible,  deceive  the  very  elect." 


4^  ecce  terra. 

By  Moral  Laws. 

God  has  given  to  man  various  rules  for  his 
conduct  which  he  can  obey  or  not  as  he  pleases, 
but  which  are  accompanied  with  penalties  for 
disobedience.  Such  rules  and  penalties  are 
found  in  the  Scriptures;  which  have  already 
made  their  way  to  a  large  section  of  mankind, 
and  are  destined  to  reach  all.  But  besides 
these  biblical  laws  there  are  others  which  from 
the  beginning  have  been  generally  known 
among  men — viz.  the  laws  of  conscience,  the 
laws  written  on  the  heart,  those  convictions  of 
rieht  and  wrone  and  of  accountableness  for  re- 
sisting  them  which  are  common  to  men.  Some 
of  these  duties,  like  old  inscriptions  on  monu- 
ments in  damp  and  changeable  climates,  are 
more  or  less  defaced,  and  sometimes  they  seem 
almost  rubbed  out;  but  they  were  evidently 
original  inscriptions  on  human  nature — inscrip- 
tions writ  large  and  cut  deep,  however  worn  by 
time,  bad  weather  and  rough  usage.  Men  at 
large  have  always  felt  that  they  would  be  held 
to  account,  at  least  in  another  life,  for  their  con- 
duct in  this. 

These  convictions,  whether  they  came  from 
a  primary  divine  revelation  or  from  the  moral 
intelligence  implanted  in  human  nature  by  God, 
are  divine  laws;   and  they  have  more  or  less 


NEED    OF  FURTHER   ILLUSTRATION.  49 

regulative  force  wherever  known.  God  gov- 
erns by  them  as  well  as  by  the  original  struc- 
ture of  the  system. 

Such  are  mainly  the  ways  in  which  the  di- 
vine Hand  does  its  work.  Sometimes,  how- 
ever, it  is  in  the  way  of  direct  personal  actions 
of  the  truly  divine  order;  that  is,  such  as  only 
God  can  do.  Samson  was  daily  doing  many 
things  which  any  of  his  neighbors  and  country- 
men could  do ;  but  times  came  when  the  actions 
required  of  him  were  such  as  only  he  could 
furnish.  He  must,  defeat  an  army  single- 
handed  ;  he  must  bow  a  temple  into  ruins. 
Our  civil  governments  are  daily  doing  common 
things  which  only  ask  for  common  forces — it 
may  be  forces  almost  beneath  account  in  their 
smallness — but  times  at  last  come  round  when 
the  nation  rises  to  the  majesty  of  some  great 
effort  that  astonishes  mankind  and  glorifies  his- 
tory. It  is  so  with  all  the  great  inanimate  sec- 
ond causes.  They  are  found  ranging  through 
all  the  gamut  of  energy  according  to  circum- 
stances— now  holding  a  planet  to  its  orbit,  and 
now  drawinor  a  feather  to  the  srround.  We 
would  naturally  think  it  might  be  so  with  God 
— that  while  a  government  dealing  with  minut- 
est  details,  as  we  have  seen  that  his  does,  would 
abound  in  all  the  smaller  examples  of  force,  it 
would  in  course  of  time  be  found  putting  forth 
4 


50  ECCE    TERRA. 

those  glorious  and  sublime  measures  of  power 
to  which  God  alone  is  equal,  and  which  as  soon 
as  we  see  we  say,  Behold  the  Almighty !  Ac- 
cordingly, the  Scriptures  show  him  as  a  worker 
of  such  miracles  as  cry  None  but  He!  None 
but  He  ! — sending  the  Deluge,  dividing  the  sea, 
raising  the  dead,  speaking  storms  into  calms, 
giving  whole  limbs  to  the  maimed, — in  short, 
doing  a  multitude  of  things  which  none  but  he 
could  do.  As  soon  as  we  see  them  the  ques- 
tion of  their  origin  is  settled.  "  Cold  weather 
cometh  out  of  the  north — with  God  is  terrible 
majesty." 

But  we  do  not  now  see  any  such  divine  work- 
ing. And  generally  the  Hand  has  done  its 
work  without  the  usual  sensible  accessories  of 
human  governments.  The  Monarch  himself  is 
never  visible  to  us.  No  throne,  no  palace,  no 
splendid  court,  no  celestial  offices  or  police  or 
armies,  illuminate  our  sky.  We  see  no  prison, 
no  courts  in  session,  no  arrest  of  offenders,  no 
uniformed  agents  of  any  sort.  Such  things 
exist ;  they  have  been  seen  in  glimpses  by  a 
few  privileged  men  ;  but  to  the  mass  of  man- 
kind they  have  always  been  matters  of  faith 
only.  We  live  on  the  frontiers  of  the  empire ; 
the  capital  with  its  golden  pomp  we  have  never 
visited;  and  though  the  pulse  of  the  central 
authority  really  beats  strongly  on  our  distant 


NEED    OF  FURTHER   ILLUSTRATION.  $1 

shores,  it  is  not  easily  traced  back  by  our 
thought  across  an  ocean  rough  with  ten  thou- 
sand other  pulses  to  the  metropolis  from  which 
it  comes. 

Accordingly,  w^e  are  not  able  to  illustrate  the 
doctrine  of  God's  universal  providence  as  we 
do  the  doctrine  that  "  it  is  appointed  unto  men 
once  to  die."  On  receiving  this  latter  teach- 
ino-  we  can  at  once  proceed  to  verify  it  in  detail 
from  observation,  and  so  make  it  exceedingly 
vivid  and  impressive.  Can  we  do  as  much  for 
the  doctrine  that  God's  hand  is  in  every  fact 
of  the  world  ?  Most  certainly  not.  Though  in 
some  events  that  Hand  as  plainly  appears  as 
it  did  to  the  appalled  court  of  Belshazzar,  in  by 
far  the  ereater  number  of  cases  it  is  quite  im- 
possible  for  any  human  gaze,  however  able  and 
patient,  to  single  out  from  the  maelstrom  of 
various  activities  concerned  in  an  event  that 
part  which  belongs  to  God.  The  forces  of  in- 
animate nature  are  there  ;  also  those  of  man  ; 
also,  perhaps,  those  of  created  beings  above 
man  ;  and  though  among  these  forces,  beyond 
a  doubt,  is  a  commanding  divine  element,  no 
human  eye  is  sharp  enough  to  recognize  it  as 
such.  Can  I  see  it  in  the  election  of  last  week  ? 
On  general  principles  I  believe  God  to  have  been 
active  in  it.  But  I  am  also  sure  that  other  forces 
in  great  variety  were   present;    and   no   mere 


52  ECCE    TERRA. 

looklne  of  mine  could  ever  show  me  the  pres- 
ence   of  anything   else.     What    I   see   are  the 
primary  meetings;  the  canvassing  of  partisans; 
the  scudding  cloud  of  political  pamphlets,  jour- 
nals, books;  the  whole  noisy  machinery  of  party 
politics  ;  the  busy  interplay  of  human  ambitions, 
interests,  passions, — all  heavily  and  continually 
pattered  on   by   innumerable   modifying    influ- 
ences of  inanimate  nature.     That  is  all  I  see. 
For  auo-ht  mere  si^ht  can  tell  me  God  is  not  in 
the  election  at  all.     If  one   points   out  to  me 
some  useful  results  of  the  election  and  exclaims, 
Behold  the  hand  of  God!  I  cannot  but  remem- 
ber that  second  causes  also  can  do  useful  things; 
also,  that  if  the  seeming  advantages  of  one  event 
prove  in  it  the  presence  of  a  divine  Hand,  the 
seeming  disadvantages  of  another  event  prove 
in  it  equally  well  the  absence  of  such  a  Hand. 
It  is  necessary  to  confess  it.    The  golden  thread 
of  supernaturalism  that  actually  runs  through 
all  the  tangled  web  of  public  and  private  affairs 
only  hei^  and  there  comes  to  the  surface  and  is 
recognizable  by  the  eye. 


IV. 
ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES. 


IV. 
ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES. 

PART   FIRST. 
GREAT   FACTS   NOT   INCONSISTENT. 

UNDER  these  circumstances  it  is  not  an 
easy  matter  to  keep  the  eye  of  the  soul 
widely  open  on  the  fact  of  the  great  Hand  in 
the  earth.  But  it  can  be  done,  for  it  has  been 
done. 

"In  each  event  of  life  how  clear 
Thy  ruling  Hand  I  see  !" 

sang  a  certain  poet,  and  still  sing  not  a  few 
hearts.  A  most  enviable  song !  How  did  they 
get  to  sing  it?  No  doubt  the  answer  is  mainly 
found  in  "The  pure  in  heart  shall  see  God." 
No  doubt  it  was  mainly  through  gracious  hearts 
and  gracious  ways  of  living — the  greatest  of 
all  known  torches  for  showing  God  and  his 
words.  But  this  torch  may  be  reinforced  as 
by  jets  of  oxygen  by  great  examples  of  divine 
action  in  some  of  the  most  notable  facts  of  the 
world. 

We   will   now   proceed  to   look  at  some  of 

56 


56  ECCE    TERRA. 

these.     When  we  have  finished  our  survey  it 
may  be  seen  that  we  have  shown  three  things : 

I.  No  facts  on  the  earth  are  inconsistent  with 
the  divine  HaJid  being  in  them; 

II.  Many  facts  positively  ha^'inonize  with  the 
idea  that  a  divine  Hand  is  in  them; 

III.  Not  a  few  facts  positively  demand  the 
presence  in  them  of  a  divine  Hand. 

By  making  good  these  three  statements  we 
furnish  not  only  striking  examples  of  divine  gov- 
ernment, but  also  such  an  experimental  proof 
of  its  universality  as  is  furnished  by  proving 
similar  statements  for  a  divine  Framer  of  na- 
ture in  the  argument  from  design.  Every  object 
will  not  answer  for  this  latter  argument.  The 
common  compounds,  the  endless  stones,  the 
hosts  of  thincr.s  that  lie  about  the  confines  of 
the  organic  and  inorganic,  cannot  be  appealed 
to ;  only  those  more  elaborate  organisms  that 
can  be  shown  to  have  had  a  beginning,  espe- 
cially these  as  appearing  in  endless  number  and 
variety.  These  imperatively  demand  a  glorious 
Designer  for  themselves ;  and,  such  a  Being 
once  found,  the  way  is  easy  to  admit  that  he 
framed  all  nature — in  view  of  the  fact  that  all 
remaining  objects  are  either  such  as  are  not  in- 
consistent with  that  idea  or  positively  harmonize 
with  it.  In  view  of  similar  facts  those  events 
in  great   number  and  variety  that  imperatwcly 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.  5/ 

demand  a  divine  Governor  for  themselves  open 
the  way  to  admit  that  he  governs  universally. 
They  are  like  certain  stars,  which,  having  been 
analyzed  by  the  spectroscope  and  found  to  con- 
tain earthy  matters  on  fire,  forthwith  become 
to  us  brilliant  specimens  of  what  all  those  other 
stars  contain  which  circumstances  do  not  per- 
mit us  to  analyze. 

I.  No  Facts  on  the  Earth  are   Inconsistent 

WITH    A    DIVINE    HaND    BEING    IN    THEM. 

Temptation,  sin,  suffering,  error,  and,  to  a 
considerable  extent,  the  unequal  distribution 
of  good  in  the  world  (vast  facts,  all  of  them), 
are  looked  upon  as  stumbling  things  by  not  a 
few  when  called  on  to  admit  that  every  fact 
about  us  includes  a  busy  divine  Hand.  Are 
they  really  inconsistent  with  the  admission  ? 

I.  Temptations. 
Temptations  to  what  is  wrong  or  harmful  are 
an  immense  class  of  facts,  crowding  every  coun- 
try and  age  of  which  we  know.  Each  person  is 
tempted — tempted  daily,  tempted  in  ways  with- 
out number.  Sometimes  the  assaults  are  sim- 
ply terrible — terrible  both  as  to  the  vices  and 
harms  to  which  they  urge,  and  as  to  the  force 
with  which  they  urge.  Never  was  city  more 
beset  with  armies,  never  ship  more  stressed  to- 


58  ECCE    TERRA. 

ward  breakers  by  conspiring  gale  and  current, 
than  is  yonder  Noah  in  the  midst  of  antedilu- 
vian wickedness,  yonder  Lot  amid  the  vileness 
of  Sodom,  yonder  Joseph  in  the  house  of  Poti- 
phar,  yonder  child  being  brought  up  in  the 
worst  den  of  the  worst  street  of  the  worst  city 
in  the  world.  Can  it  be  that  a  good  divine 
Hand  is  concerned  in  every  such  temptation  ? 
Let  us  see. 

Suppose  the  following  things  to  be  true.  It 
is  well  for  a  man  to  have  a  nature  capable  of 
being  solicited  toward  what  is  right  and  useful. 
Such  a  nature  implies  a  capacity  to  be  solicited 
in  an  opposite  direction.  Opposite  solicitations 
can,  in  all  cases,  be  successfully  resisted,  either 
by  a  native  power  of  self-restraint  or  by  aid 
from  without,  or  by  both.  Where  thus  resisted 
they  become  a  great  moral  discipline  and  give 
birth  to  a  strength  and  splendor  of  virtuous 
character  otherwise  impossible.  That  this 
splendid  result  may  follow  every  temptation, 
God  supplies  all  the  help  possible  to  infinite 
wisdom  and  power;  for  example,  sometimes 
wholly  suppressing  temptations  that  would 
prove  too  powerful ;  making  others  as  favor- 
able as  possible  in  regard  to  degree,  time  and 
other  circumstances ;  forewarning  of,  forbidding 
to  yield  to,  calling  to  watchfulness  and  prayer 
against,   promising   and    threatening,  minister- 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.  59 

ing  strength  by  his  Holy  Spirit  and  providence 
and  word.  And  all  to  such  good  purpose  that 
there  Is  absolutely  no  one,  however  stormily  he 
may  be  tempted,  but  may  get  from  the  tempta- 
tion almost  infinite  good  to  himself,  and  so  to 
others  who  come  under  his  influence. 

Not  a  few  do  this.  Their  fight  conquers  for 
them  whole  provinces  and  kingdoms  of  charac- 
ter. Their  storm  at  last  sends  them  into  har- 
bor, not  only  without  the  loss  of  a  single  spar 
or  rope,  but  triumphantly  drawing  after  them 
more  captive  galleons  than  ever  came  in,  heavy 
and  glittering,  from  the  Spanish  Main. 

I  say,  suppose  these  things  are  so.  Certainly 
not  an  unreasonable  supposition.  It  looks  as 
though  it  mieht  be  true.  It  is  at  least  what  the 
scientists  would  call  a  good  working  hypothesis. 
It  would  be  hard,  not  to  say  impossible,  to  show 
that  it  does  not  conform  to  fact  in  every  partic- 
ular. While  not  a  single  one  of  the  particulars 
it  includes  Is  a  priori  Incredible,  or  even  un- 
likely, most  of  them  are  demonstrated  by  either 
experience  or  Scripture.  ''  Blessed  is  the  man 
that  endureth  temptation  ;  for  when  he  is  tried 
he  shall  receive  the  crown  of  life  which  the 
Lord  has  promised  to  them  that  love  him.  Let 
no  man  say  when  he  Is  tempted,  I  am  tempted 
of  God  ;  for  God  cannot  be  tempted  with  evil, 
neither  tempteth  he  any  man.     But  every  man 


6o  ECCE    TERRA. 

is  tempted  when  he  is  drawn  away  of  his  own 
hist  and  enticed  ;"  ''  God  is  faithful  who  will  not 
suffer  you  to  be  tempted  above  that  ye  are  able ; 
but  will  with  the  temptation  also  make  a  way  to 
escape,  that  ye  may  be  able  to  bear  it;"  "In  this 
manner  pray  ye,  Lead  us  not  into  temptation." 
How  much  is  implied  in  such  passages  as  to  the 
degree  and  kind  of  work  done  by  the  divine 
Hand  in  connection  with  the  temptations  of  the 
world ! 

If  our  supposition  expresses  the  actual  state 
of  things,  it  follows  not  only  that  there  is  a 
great  divine  Hand  active  in  connection  with  all 
temptation,  but  that  the  activities  are  of  such 
sorts  as  an  infinitely  wise  and  good  Being  may 
consistently  put  forth,  and  is  even  bound  by  his 
wisdom  and  goodness  to  put  forth.  The  only 
action  of  his  that  has  any  look  to  the  contrary 
is  his  initial  allowing  of  temptation  at  all ;  but 
if  this  is  a  necessity  to  his  having  the  best  sort 
of  human  nature  in  his  world — viz.  one  to 
which  virtue  is  possible  (that  is,  one  that  can 
be  solicited  toward  the  right  and  yet  be  free 
to  refuse) — then  even  this  cannot  be  charged 
as  inconsistent  with  the  goodness  of  the  divine 
government.  No  one  has  a  right  to  complain 
of  a  tempted  lot  of  which  he  can  avoid  all  the 
evils,  and  out  of  which  he  can  wring  almost  im- 
measurable good,  and  toward  which  God  stands 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.  6 1 

ready  to  grant,  especially  on  being  asked,  any 
amount  of  help  that  may  be  needed  to  con- 
vert the  contest  into  a  victory,  the  cross  into  a 
crown. 

2.  Sins. 
Temptations,  in  cases  innumerable,  result  in 
sins.  These  dreariest  events  of  our  own  time 
have  made  dreary  nearly  all  time.  Since  the 
first  apostasy  sins  have  been  a  staple  product 
of  the  aees.  The  world  has  fed  on  them  as  on 
bread,  and  become  a  lazaretto  throughout.  And 
sicch  diseases !  So  many,  so  various  and  so 
dreadful !  Were  a  thunderbolt  let  loose  every 
time  an  enormous  crime  is  done,  the  heavens  i 
would  quake  with  one  continuous  and  intoler- 
able roar.  History  is  pocked  with  outrageous' 
abominations.  Wars,  crueldes,  murders,  frauds, 
profligacies,  slaveries,  apostasies, — take  your 
choice,  O  historian,  as  to  the  direction  in  which 
you  go,  you  shall  wade  chin-deep  through 
such  thines ;  through  seas  of  ink.  The  ink 
with  which  you  write  is  not  by  any  means  as 
black  as  the  injustices  and  perjuries  and  vices 
you  describe.  Nay,  quit  your  ink  and  w^rite 
with  blood,  for  enough  human  blood  has  been 
wickedly  shed  to  fatten  the  soil  of  all  the  world. 
Enough  human  souls  have  been  deliberately 
corrupted  to  rottenness  to  poison  whole  conti- 
nents   and    smell    to    heaven.     The    plague    is 


62  ECCE    TERRA. 

everywhere.  There  is  not  a  bit  of  thoroughly 
sound  flesh  in  all  this  human  world.  Even 
good  men  have  to  say,  ''  I  know  that  in  me, 
that  is  in  my  flesh,  there  dwelleth  no  good 
thing." 

Is  it  possible  that  this  wonder-sinfulness,  in 
all  its  length  and  breadth  and  in  every  instance, 
includes  a  busy  divine  Hand  ?     Let  us  see. 

Let  us  suppose  the  following  things.  God  is 
not  the  responsible  author,  or  even  abetter,  of 
any  sin  whatever.  On  the  contrary,  he  dis- 
likes and  opposes  every  sin  in  all  the  ways  open 
to  infinite  wisdom,  power  and  goodness.  He 
only  allows  it  in  any  case  as  a  grim  necessity,  so 
far  as  he  is  concerned,  of  that  free  moral  nature 
and  government  which  to  dispense  with  would 
be  to  dispense  with  the  possibility  of  virtue  it- 
self. It  is  desirable  that  a  part  of  the  world's 
inhabitants  have  not  the  nature  of  stones  or  of 
vegetables,  but  vastly  higher  natures,  like  God's 
own,  in  being  capable  of  virtue.  Natures  capa- 
ble of  virtue  are  by  that  very  fact  also  capable 
of  sin.  So  God  cannot  prevent  sin  among  us 
by  mere  physical  omnipotence.  The  best  he 
can  do  with  such  natures  is  to  bring  influences 
to  bear  on  the  will,  persuading  it  in  its  freedom 
to  decide  against  sin.  Such  influences  he  does 
not  spare,  but  by  his  word  or  Spirit  or  provi- 
dence, or  all  these,  endeavors  to  enlighten  men 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.  63 

in  reeard  to  the  evil  of  sin,  dissuades  from 
it,  forbids  it,  threatens  and  promises  heavily 
against  it,  marshals  circumstances  against  it, 
counteracts  and  overrules  as  far  as  possible  its 
natural  effects.  In  fine,  his  actions  as  to  sin 
are  such  that  he  does  all  he  can,  consistently 
with  retaining  a  free  moral  nature  in  man  and 
the  best  possible  moral  system,  both  to  prevent 
sin  and  to  recover  from  it,  and,  when  neither  is 
possible,  to  neutralize  its  effects.  Not  merely 
by  conscience  and  the  word,  but  also  directly 
by  his  Spirit  and  his  own  busy  right  hand,  he 
is  incessantly  and  wonderfully  acting  for  these 
ends. 

If,  notwithstanding  all,  the  man  will  go  on  to 
the  sin,  God  endeavors  to  minimize  it,  atones 
for  it,  forgives  it  if  repented  of,  does  all  he  con- 
sistendy  can  to  recover  from  it,  perhaps  chas- 
tises it,  circumscribes  and  defeats  its  natural 
effects  as  far  as  possible,  and,  as  a  last  resort, 
punishes  it.  In  short,  every  sin  that  occurs  rep- 
resents a  vast  amount  of  antagonisdc  divine 
action.  A  fire  burns  in  it  as  it  did  in  the  thorn- 
bush  that  Moses  saw,  or  as  does  the  electric 
glory  in  the  black  bosom  of  a  storm-cloud. 

This  is  at  least  a  plausible  supposition.  It  is 
accepted  as  satisfactory  by  multitudes  of  Chris- 
tian people,  being,  as  they  think,  expressly 
taught,  as  to  most  if  not  all  its  particulars,  so 


64  ECCE    TERRA. 

fully  and  variously  in  Scripture  that  they  are 
compelled  to  accept  it.  And  certainly  it  has  in 
itself  an  aspect  of  reasonableness.  To  affirm 
that  it  cannot  be  true,  or  even  that  the  likeli- 
hoods are  against  it,  is  more  than  careful  and 
conscientious  reasoners  would  venture  upon. 
A  priori,  it  is   altogether  credible. 

And  what  if  the  supposition  agrees  with  fact? 
Then  it  follows  not  only  that  every  sin  carries 
with  it  an  immense  amount  of  divine  action,  but 
that  most  of  these  actions  are  not  only  not  in- 
consistent with  divine  goodness,  but  are  even 
positively  and  loudly  demanded  by  it.  There 
is  only  one  particular  which  can  be  supposed 
to  be  an  exception.  That  is  the  initial  allowing 
of  sin.  But  if  sin  is  a  necessity  to  God  in 
every  case  in  which  it  occurs — necessary  be- 
cause it  is  on  the  whole  best  for  man  to  have 
a  free  moral  nature — then  how  is  a  shadow, 
even  the  slightest,  cast  on  the  goodness  of  the 
divine  government  ? 

No,  there  is  nothing  in  sin  to  hinder  our  ac- 
cepting the  doctrine  that  there  is  a  divine  Hand 
in  every  instance  of  it  as  really  as  there  was  in 
the  riotous  and  sacrilegious  halls  of  Belshazzar. 
What  a  flaming,  kingly  Hand  that  was !  Right 
in  the  midst  of  the  wickedness,  and  yet  not 
partaking  of  it!  On  the  contrary,  a  great, 
warning,  resisting,  protesting,  primitive   Force 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.  65 

which  eot  not  a  shade  on  its  bricrhtness  from 
its  bad  surroundings.  A  Hand  can  burn  and 
sway  as  well  in  the  bosom  of  the  night  as  of 
the  day.  The  sceptre  of  a  human  king  is  as 
much  at  home  among  disorders,  corruptions 
and  crimes  as  elsewhere.  Why  not  that 
grander  sceptre  ? 

The  Bible  is  one  huge  protest  against  sin. 
To  be  consistent  God  must  act  against  it  as 
well  as  talk  against  it;  and,  since  acting  might- 
ily against  every  instance  of  it  is  just  as  easy 
to  an  infinite  Being  as  acting  against  a  single 
instance,  it  is  certain  that  such  mighty  personal 
action  is  really,  though  invisibly,  at  work  as  a 
hostile  force  wherever  and  whenever  sin  is 
found. 

3.  Sufferings. 

Another  great  class  of  facts,  found  in  the 
greatest  profusion  in  all  times  and  countries — 
not  only  in  those  known  to  written  history, 
but  also  in  those  buried  in  the  mausolea  of 
geology. 

Men  have  always  died,  and  found  their  way 
to  the  grave  by  rough  and  thorny  roads.  Not 
a  day  without  something  disagreeable ;  some 
days  full  of  vexatious  experiences ;  occasion- 
ally an  experience  that  amounts  to  anguish. 
And  sometimes  anguish  is  heaped  on  anguish. 


66  ECCE    TERRA. 

What  prolonged  tortures  are  inflicted  by  some 
diseases,  by  some  crushing  accidents,  by  human 
and  inhuman  inquisitions !  What  terrible  dis- 
appointments, anxieties,  despairs,  sometimes 
make  a  still  severer  inquisition  for  the  soul ! 
How  famines,  pestilences,  wars,  cataclysms 
every  now  and  then,  put  whole  nations  on  the 
rack !  So  it  has  always  been.  Not  a  human 
grave  has  yet  been  made  except  by  a  spade 
in  the  form  of  a  cross.  Some  say  that  former 
times  were  even  more  trying  than  the  present 
— that  the  mountains  of  ignorance,  supersti- 
tion, absolutism  and  depravity,  like  the  other 
Alps,  have  been  slowly  wearing  down  under 
^  the  wave-beat  of  the  ages  and  letting  in  upon 
us  more  and  more  of  the  light  and  cheer  of 
Heaven.  Doubtless  it  is  so.  The  "  good  old 
times,"  the  "brave  days  of  old,"  were,  after  all, 
the  saddest  of  all.  History  is  a  fearful  thing — 
till  we  get  used  to  it.  We  walk  through  its 
ghoul-haunted  and  shrieking  shades  with  hair 
scarcely  less  electrical  than  if  they  were  those 
of  Dante's  Inferno.  Such  wars,  such  tyrants, 
such  flailing  of  the  masses  to  pieces  ! — ah,  an- 
tiquity was  a  monster !  It  had  no  bowels  of 
compassion.  Man  trod  man  as  the  mire  of  the 
streets.  "And  the  earth  was  filled  with  vio- 
lence " — while  one  Flood  was  experienced,  sev- 
eral floods  were  deserved. 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.  6/ 

Now,  is  it  possible  that  such  facts  as  these — 
casting  such  terrible  shadows  across  all  coun- 
tries and  times — include  a  busy  divine  Hand? 
Let  us  see. 

Sicppose  the  following  things  to  be  true. 
Much  suffering  flows  naturally  from  much  sin 
— sin,  the  parent  of  such  things  as  selfishness, 
envy,  jealousy,  malice,  remorse ;  sin,  that  con- 
flicts with  the  laws  of  nature,  and  so  implies 
struggle,  discontent,  vexation,  anxiety,  defeat. 
Also,  it  is  well  that  sin  should  be  allowed  to 
show  forth,  to  a  certain  extent,  its  evil  nature 
by  its  evil  fruits.  It  is  fitting  that  so  sinful  a 
race  as  ours  should  not  have  a  Paradise  to  live 
in,  but  should  have  in  the  form  of  pain  more  or 
less  tokens  of  divine  displeasure — indeed,  se- 
vere chastisements  and  punishments.  Still,  no 
one  suffers  more  than  an  enlightened  con- 
science tells  him  he  deserves.  And,  such  as  the 
suffering  is,  it  need  continue  but  a  short  time 
— a  time  so  short  relatively  to  our  whole  dura- 
tion that  it  ought  in  practice  to  count  for  noth- 
ing, as  do  the  relative  nothino-s  of  the  math- 
ematics.  Besides,  human  suffering  in  this  world 
is  by  no  means  an  unmixed  evil  while  it  con- 
tinues, but  often  enhances  enjoyment  by  its 
sable  background;  calls  forth  delightful  benev- 
olent activities;  furnishes  the  world  with  many 
splendid  examples  of  patience,  fortitude,  trust, 


68  ECCE    TERRA. 

heroism ;  and  in  the  case  of  every  man  may  be 
the  means  of  almost  unhmited  moral  improve- 
ment to  himself,  and  so  to  others. 

Now,  let  us  suppose  that  God  is  In  these 
facts  in  the  following  manner.  He  is  inces- 
sandy  acdve  in  the  effort  to  dry  up  the  sources 
of  all  suffering  in  sin.  He  actually  cancels  or 
averts,  especially  in  the  case  of  such  as  ask  his 
help,  many  sorrows  which  but  for  his  interfe- 
rence would  have  made  human  life  far  more 
thorny  than  it  is.  What  cannot  be  wholly  done 
away  with  consistently  with  those  general  laws 
indispensable  to  every  great  and  wise  system, 
and  with  his  character  as  magistrate  over  sin- 
ners who  need  to  be  chastised,  punished,  re- 
formed, he  makes  as  small  as  possible  consist- 
ently with  these  essentials.  What  suffering 
remains  after  this  paring  process  he  aims  to 
make  fruitful  in  the  largest  possible  advantage 
to  the  sufferer,  and  also  to  others  whose  orbits 
fall  within  or  intersect  his,  and  for  this  end 
never  for  a  moment  ceases  to  manipulate  the 
suffering  and  the  men  with  all  the  forces  of  his 
wisdom  and  strength ;  and  is  so  successful  in 
his  work  that  not  only  great  improvement  in 
character  often  takes  place  under  the  discipline 
of  trouble,  but  there  is  not  a  cross  in  the  whole 
round  of  human  experience  by  which  the  suf- 
ferer may  not,  with  the  help  of  a  divine  lifting. 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.  69 

climb  to  noble  heights  of  virtue,  and  finally  to 
that  God  who  wipes  away  all  tears. 

But  suffering  is  not  confined  to  responsible 
man.  It  overflows  from  him  on  all  the  subject 
races  in  a  mighty  freshet.  They  are  worried, 
hunted,  victimized  by  each  other  as  well  as  by 
ourselves.  And  long  before  man  appeared  in 
the  world  with  his  iron  flail  they  were  scarcely 
better  off.  They  had  but  one  tyrant  the  less. 
The  rocks  tell  a  dismal  story,  and  tell  it  loudly. 
Species  after  species  was  swept  away.  Chase, 
violence,  blood,  were  the  order  of  the  day  of 
the  long  ages.  From  their  very  beginning  the 
brute  races  preyed  on  each  other  without  stint, 
and,  evidently,  were  designed  to  do  so.  The  i 
fossil  world  is  largely  a  petrified  groan. 

Such  is  the  view  of  the  situation  taken  by 
many  who  are  tempted  to  ask  how  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  world  can  consist  with  the  idea  that 
there  is  a  divine  Hand  busy  in  every  one  of 
them.  And,  however  we  may  object  to  their 
strength  of  statement  and  depth  of  coloring, 
we  cannot  deny  that  this  "whole  creation 
groan eth  and  travaileth  together  in  pain  until 
now." 

What  can  be  said  to  such  a  fact  by  those 
who  hold  to  a  good  governing  God  whose 
Hand  is  concerned  in  absolutely  everything? 

Let  us  suppose  again,  as  follows.     By  far  the 


70  ECCE    TERRA. 

larger  part  of  brute  experience,  like  the  human, 
is  pleasurable.  Having  a  far  less  sensitive  and 
delicate  organization  than  ourselves,  the  races 
below  us  suffer  far  less  than  we  should  under 
the  same  circumstances.  They  have  litde  of 
that  faculty  of  anticipating  trouble  from  which 
so  much  of  human  suffering  comes.  Even  the 
pain  they  feel  in  dying  by  violence  may  be  very 
small,  for  there  is  reason  to  believe  it  so  in  the 
case  of  men  with  their  finer  sensibilities.  Liv- 
ingstone says  that  one  stroke  from  the  paw  of 
a  lion  preparing  to  devour  him  left  him  without 
pain,  even  that  of  fear.  Muscular  convulsion 
and  distortion  are  no  sure  sign  of  suffering,  but 
are  even  sometimes  the  sable  dress  worn  by 
actual  enjoyment.  So  that  it  is  by  no  means 
beyond  belief  that  the  death  of  brutes  in  the 
line  of  their  function  as  food  for  others  is  pos- 
itively pleasurable.  There  is  such  a  thing  as 
euthanasia.  But  euthanasia,  with  a  succession 
of  individuals  and  races  perpetually  rejuvenat- 
ing the  earth,  may  give  a  larger  sum  of  happi- 
ness than  any  other  possible  system. 

Still,  let  us  grant  that  after  all  such  abate- 
ments there  is,  and  always  has  been,  much  real 
suffering  among  the  brutes.  How  great  is  this 
remainder?  Is  it  greater  than  is  required  to 
meet  the  following  possibilities  ?  First,  it  may 
be  that  the  best,  not  to  say  the  only,  means  of 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.  7 1 

guiding  the  lower  animals  away  from  hurtful 
and  destructive  paths  are  the  thorn-hedges  of 
pain  on  this  side  and  on  that.  Second,  it  may 
be  that  most  people  are  right  in  tacitly  assum- 
ing, as  they  do,  that  a  certain  low  measure  of 
depravity,  responsibleness  and  improvableness 
belongs  to  brutes,  so  that  for  them  pain  as 
chastisement,  discipline,  punishment,  is  not  out 
of  place,  and  that  the  same  general  sort  of  di- 
vine dealing  which  is  proper  for  us  may  be 
proper  for  them. 

I  say,  suppose  these  things  are  so.  I  do  not 
affirm  them  (there  is  no  present  need)  ;  I  only 
suggest  them  as  a  reasonable  hypothesis  to 
account  for  the  facts.  Is  the  hypothesis  incredi- 
ble, or  even  unlikely?  It  certainly  would  be  hard 
to  show  that  it  is  so  in  a  single  particular.  It 
has  a  look  of  reasonableness  and  verisimilitude, 
finds  great  support  in  Scripture;  at  the  very 
least  is  what  scientists  would  call  a  "good 
working  hypothesis."     It  may  be  true. 

But  if  true,  it  follows  not  only  that  a  divine 
Hand  is  largely  active  in  connection  with  every 
sorrow,  but  also  that  many  movements  of  that 
Hand  are  positively  demanded  by  the  divine 
goodness.  Even  the  initial  permission  of  suf- 
fering— the  only  thing  about  it  that  for  one 
moment  can  be  supposed  to  be  at  war  with 
the  doctrine  of  a  universal  Providence  that  is 


72  ECCE    TERRA. 

good  as  well  as  divlne^appears  as  a  grim  ne- 
cessity to  a  just  and  wise  government  over  a 
depraved  world — a  world  which  is  itself  the 
grimmest  necessity  of  all. 

The  well-known  tenor  of  Scripture,  recog- 
nized in  all  Christian  creeds  and  practice, 
teaches  us  that  "affliction  cometh  not  forth  of 
the  dust,  neither  doth  trouble  spring  out  of  the 
ground;"  that  God  appoints  or  royally  manip- 
ulates all  trials  ;  that  he  is  open  to  prayer  in 
regard  to  every  one  of  them ;  that  for  the  good 
man  he  actually  secures  that  all  things  (afflic- 
tions) shall  work  together  for  his  good ;  that  in 
the  case  of  no  one  and  in  no  case  does  he 
*'  willingly  afflict  the  children  of  men,  but  for 
their  profit,  that  they  may  be  partakers  of 
his  holiness." 

4.  Errors. 

Another  great  family  of  stumbling  facts. 
Errors  are  the  weeds  of  opinion,  and,  like 
other  weeds,  flourish  luxuriandy  all  over  the 
world.  Who  knows  an  infallible  man  ?  The 
wisest  and  most  careful  fall  into  mistake  on  all 
sorts  of  subjects — business,  social  life,  politics, 
medicine,  science,  religion.  To  some  men  mis- 
takes seem  to  come  in  flocks,  as  kites  to  car- 
rion, and  never  was  unfortunate  ship  more 
weighted   with    barnacles   than   are   not  a  few 


ILLUSTRA  TION  B  Y  GREA  T  EXAMPLES.  7 3 

crude  and  reckless  thinkers  with  errors  on  the 
most  important  subjects. 

See  what  religious  errors  !  Our  first  mother 
fell  into  the  mistake  of  thinking  that  eating  the 
forbidden  fruit  would  make  her  a  goddess  ;  her 
children  very  soon  made  the  still  greater  mis- 
take of  thinking  that  there  was  any  number 
of  gods ;  and  the  greatest  mistake  of  all  was 
made  when,  still  later,  men  shut  their  eyes  on 
the  heavens  and  the  earth  and  thought  there 
was  no  God.  The  bottomless  pit  of  thought 
is  materialistic  atheism.  Alas!  what  numbers 
are  shooting  down  that  pit  to-day — some  of 
them  shooting  stars — exclaiming  as  they  pass 
out  of  sight,  ''  No  sin,  no  responsibility,  no  fu- 
ture state,  no  soul,  no  God"!  Mohammedan- 
ism, Spiritualism,  Mormonism,  Romanism,  and 
heresies  within  the  Christian  Church,  —  how 
many,  truculent  and  destructive  they  are ! 

Missiles  of  error  and  doubt — 
Firebrands,  arrows,  deaths — sing  out 
From  our  air,  as  summer  sings 
With  the  rush  of  insect  wings. 

Our  faith  sails  on  the  high  seas. 
Where  fleets  of  corsair  ideas 
Watch  and  wander  night  and  day, 
All  to  bear  this  prize  away. 

Fierce  slops  and  acids  of  thought 
From  stills  of  all  lands  are  brought, 


74  ECCE    TERRA. 

And  cast  without  stint  or  ruth 
At  the  roots  of  each  great  truth 

Think  you  the  leaf  will  not  wilt 
Beneath  which  such  dregs  are  spilt  ? 
Think  you  the  fruit  will  not  shrink 
Whose  root  is  drinking  such  ink  ? 

As  well  'mid  swamps  and  miasm 
Think  to  set  up  a  safe  home, 
Or  through  thick  tempests  of  steel, 
Unmailed,  a  safe  way  to  feel. 

May  one  toss  his  flaming  brands 
Right  and  left,  with  careless  hands, 
'Mid  your  droughty  ricks  and  thatch, 
Thinking  naught  the  flame  will  catch  ? 

Ho,  truth-holding  men  !  beware 
How  you  sleep  and  how  you  dare — 
How  you  dare  with  open  breast 
Bid  the  foeman  do  his  best. 

See  you  not  that  you  have  need 
Of  a  shield  for  this  your  creed — 
Need  to  front  it  every  way, 
Need  to  hold  it  night  and  day  ? 

In  an  air  that  hums  with  death 
Naught  but  this  is  safe  for  faith — 
Slime  or  shot  that  raineth  free 
Meaneth  death  for  you  and  me. 

Man  is  weak,  the  false  is  strong, 
It  has  friends  in  all  our  wrong ; 
"  Watch  and  fight  and  pray  "  must  be 
Daily  shield  for  you  and  me. 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.  75 

Is  It  possible  that  an  almighty  benevolent 
Hand  Is  busy  In  every  one  of  these  many  as- 
sailing errors,  even  the  worst? 

See  my  hypothesis,  as  follows.  Some  errors 
are  unimportant,  and  so  In  our  mathematics  we 
always  neglect  fractions  of  a  certain  grade.  In- 
deed, we  may  say  that  some  mistakes  are  more 
useful  than  truth  would  be  In  their  stead :  as 
when  the  truth  would  be  abused,  and  so  guilt 
be  enhanced;  or  when  a  man  enters  a  church, 
supposing  It  to  be  a  theatre,  and  Is  converted; 
or  misses  his  road,  and  so  misses  the  steamer 
that  goes  out  to  sea  only  to  go  to  the  bottom. 
The  finlteness  of  our  faculties,  Itself  a  neces- 
sity, necessarily  breeds  more  or  less  error  In 
us  If  unaided  by  God  ;  and  It  may  be  proper, 
and  even  necessary,  for  God  to  leave  unaided 
those  who  do  not  seek  his  help,  and  who  need 
to  learn  their  own  weakness  without  him.  And, 
generally,  the  attitude  of  God  toward  errors  is 
this :  he  cautions  against  the  more  serious  of 
them  by  name ;  actually  prevents  not  a  few  by 
his  word,  Spirit  and  providence;  removes,  after 
a  while,  many  which  he  could  not  consistently 
prevent;  defeats  the  natural  111  effects  of  many 
which  he  could  consistently  neither  prevent  nor 
remove  ;  is  constantly  antagonizing  all  error  by 
antagonizing  sin  to  the  utmost  and  by  his  ut- 
most efforts  at  lifting  humanity  In  all   respects 


^6  ECCE    TERRA. 

to  a  higher  plane  of  being,  as  some  city  is 
gradually  lifted  out  of  its  primitive  slough,  by 
screws  and  levers  innumerable,  into  dryness 
and  healthfulness.  Even  good  men  are  con- 
stantly engaged  in  doing  all  these  things :  is  it 
too  much  to  suppose  that  God  is  doing  them 
on  a  vastly  larger  scale?  We  will  suppose  it; 
and  even  that,  by  his  manifold  "  sceptrings " 
this  way  and  that,  God  actually  secures  all  who 
yield  to  his  guidance  either  from  error  or  from 
all  harm  from  it  as  he  proceeds  on  his  sublime 
path  of  making  "  all  things  work  together  for 
good  to  them  that  love  God." 

Notice  that  I  do  not  affirm  a  single  one  of 
these  particulars.  I  only  suggest  them  as  pos- 
sible truths.  That  they  are  at  least  so  much 
can  hardly  be  questioned  by  any  reasonable 
person.  Indeed,  no  such  person  will  venture 
to  say  that  they  are  unlikely  even.  One  does 
not  have  to  listen  very  hard  to  hear  in  their 
favor  the  affidavits  of  both  natural  and  revealed 
reliofion. 

But  if  our  supposition  really  accords  with 
fact,  it  follows  not  only  that  a  divine  Hand  is 
largely  busy  within  and  around  every  error,  as 
the  lightning  plays  within  and  around  the  black 
cloud,  but  that  the  movements  of  that  Hand 
are  such  as  to  manifest  rather  than  discredit 
the  goodness  of  God.     The  only  thing  that  for 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.  7/ 

one  moment  seems  against  that  goodness  is  his 
initial  permission  of  error  when  he  could  have 
prevented  it ;  for  doubtless  he  could  have  pre- 
vented it,  since  he  could  have  withheld  from  us 
intelligence,  and  thus  have  made  mistakes  as 
impossible  to  us  as  they  are  to  stones.  Or, 
without  doing  this,  he  might  have  telephoned 
a  self-evidencing  divine  voice  to  our  hesitating 
thought,  saying,  "This  is  the  way,  walk  ye 
therein."  But  it  may  be  that  it  would  not  be 
best  that  all  men  should  be  stones,  or  that  all 
the  errors  that  naturally  flow  from  sin  should 
be  prevented.  For  aught  any  can  show  to  the 
contrary,  a  system  that  guarantees  practical 
immunity  from  all  serious  errors  to  all  persons 
on  their  complying  with  certain  reasonable  con- 
ditions would  be  better  than  a  system  dispensing 
with  free  agency,  or  one  carrying,  as  in  an  om- 
nibus-car, with  equal  sureness  and  despatch  to 
the  goal  of  truth  the  careful  and  the  careless, 
the  industrious  and  the  idle,  the  earnest  in- 
quirer and  the  pettifogging  partisan,  the  wise 
and  foolish,  the  righteous  and  the  wicked. 

The  well-known  tenor  of  Scripture,  recog- 
nized in  all  Christian  creeds  and  practice,  is  to 
the  effect  that  in  all  cases  of  doubt  as  to  what 
we  are  to  believe  or  do  it  is  our  duty  and  priv- 
ilege to  appeal  to  God  for  help.  This  means 
that  his  hand  occupies  in  a  sovereign  manner 


7^  ECCE    TERRA. 

the  whole  realm  of  truth  and  error — that  he 
can  "open  the  eyes  of  the  understanding,"  "di- 
rect our  paths,"  "guide  into  all  truth,"  "give  all 
things  that  pertain  to  life  and  godliness,"  "open 
the  understanding  to  understand  the  Script- 
ures,"— in  short,  means  that  "  if  a  man  lack 
wisdom,  let  him  ask  of  God,"  who  "is  Light" 
itself,  "who  orders  the  steps  of  the  good  man," 
and  who  "  will  withhold  no  good  thing  from 
them  who  walk  uprightly." 

5.  Certain  Partialisms. 
Looking  about  among  the  creatures,  we  see 
wide  differences  as  to  the  measure  of  "  advan- 
tages "  enjoyed — differences  often  independent 
of  character.  One  being  is  a  stone,  another  a 
grass,  another  a  worm,  another  an  eagle,  still 
another  a  man.  Men  differ  vastly  among  them- 
selves as  to  beauty,  health,  strength,  wealth, 
social  rank,  talents,  education,  and  even  moral 
advantages — not  seldom  by  virtue  of  mere 
birth.  Born  a  genius,  born  wealthy,  born  a 
prince,  above  all  born  in  the  bosom  of  a  wise 
and  Christian  family  and  at  the  centre  of  the 
very  choicest  influences, — this  describes  the  lot 
of  some,  while  a  lot  just  the  opposite  in  all  re- 
spects falls  to  others.  Human  society  is  a 
ladder  the  topmost  rounds  of  which  are  in  the 
'  clouds  and  the  lowest  stuck  fast  in  the  mire ; 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.  79 

and  whatever  round  the  good  man  may  stand 
upon  he  is  sure  to  see  above  him  the  foot  of 
some  sinner  who  is  not  worthy  to  come  down 
and  unloose  his  shoe-latchet.  Good  Lazarus 
in  his  sores  and  rags  waits  with  the  dogs  for 
the  crumbs  at  the  gate  of  wicked  and  sump- 
tuous Dives.  St.  Paul  clothed  with  serge  and 
chains  stands  before  brute  Nero  clothed  with 
imperial  purple  and  jewels. 

One  natiofi  is  greatly  inferior  to  another  in 
numbers,  geographic  position,  wealth,  power, 
fame,  though  greatly  superior  in  character. 
What  was  Israel  at  its  best,  in  point  of  historic 
splendor  and  importance,  compared  with  such 
heathen  nations  as  the  Assyrian,  Egyptian,  and 
Roman  ?  A  good  cause,  like  a  good  man,  is 
often  defeated  and  trodden  in  the  mire  by  a 
bad  one — true  philosophies  by  the  false,  Pytha- 
gorases  by  Ptolemies,  orthodoxies  by  heresies, 
revivals  by  backslidings,  primitive  Christianity 
by  Romanism,  the  Vaudois  by  their  bloody  and 
misbelieving  princes,  the  Protestant  electors  by 
Charles  V.,  Protestantism  In  France  and  Spain 
and  Italy  by  horrible  Inquisitions  and  St.  Bar- 
tholomews, Reformed  by  Rationalistic  Germany, 
Poland  by  her  grasping  neighbors,  Hungary  by 
Austria, — In  short,  there  Is  neither  Individual 
nor  nation  nor  cause,  however  good,  but  may 
be  prostrated  by  its  enemy,  however  bad.     This 


So  ECCE    TERRA. 

lies  open  to  all  sight  on  the  surface  of  all  his- 
tory. The  past  is  strewn  with  wrecks  of  sys- 
tems, public  morals,  institutions,  empires — 
causes  that  were  crushed  by  foes  less  de- 
serving than  themselves,  and  sometimes  wicked 
in  the  extreme — just  as  the  Old  World  is  strewn 
with  noble  works  of  art  broken  by  the  hands  of 
rude  Vandals,  or  as  wheat  is  supplanted  by 
tares,  a  palace  by  a  cabin,  a  city  by  a  desert, 
a  calm  by  a  storm,  summer  by  winter. 

Can  a  divine  Hand  that  is  both  just  and  al- 
mighty have  anything  to  do  with  such  partial- 
isms  as  these  ?  Is  there  not  necessarily  injus- 
tice as  well  as  inequality  in  such  allotments? 
Let  us  see,  looking  first  at  the  case  of  individ- 
uals. 

We  have  been  taught,  truly  or  otherwise,  as 
follows.  Such  worldly  distinctions  as  riches, 
honors,  beauty,  fame — and  even  such  things  as 
splendid  abilities,  and  education,  and  religious 
advantages — are  not  always  real  advantages 
as  to  either  character  or  happiness ;  indeed,  are 
never  so  except  as  associated  with  virtue.  Cae- 
sar says  that  even  the  barbarous  Helvetians 
held,  "  consuesse  deos  immortales,  quo  gravius 
homines  ex  commutatione  rerum  doleant,  quos 
pro  scelere  eorum  ulcisci  velint,  his  secundiores 
interdum  res  et  diuturniorem  impunitatem  con- 
cedere."     Real  disadvantages  of  one  sort  are 


ILLUSTRATION  BY   GREAT  EXAMPLES.  8 1 

often  offsetted  by  advantages  of  another  sort 
which  escape  our  notice  and  perhaps  are  invisi- 
ble ;  thus,  the  moral  disadvantages  of  a  child 
born  and  bred  in  some  den  of  vice  may  be  com- 
pensated by  extra  measures  of  a  striving  Holy 
Spirit  within,  which  no  observation  can  detect. 
Certain  forms  of  good,  from  their  very  nature, 
cannot  be  given  to  all ;  for  example,  the  leader- 
ship of  the  Exodus,  the  Jewish  high  priesthood, 
the  motherhood  of  Christ,  the  office  of  an  apostle. 
Different  positions  and  functions,  and  therefore 
different  circumstances  and  faculties,  neces- 
sarily belong  to  the  different  members  of  a 
great  and  wise  system,  even  as  a  watch  must 
include  many  a  little  pin  and  tooth  and  wheel,  * 
as  well  as  the  conspicuous  golden  dial-plate.  In 
order  that  it  may  answer  Its  purpose.  Different 
persons  of  the  same  moral  standing  require  dif- 
ferent ways  and  measures  of  training  In  order  to 
the  best  moral  results,  as  we  often  observe  In 
children  of  the  same  family,  one  thriving  best 
under  the  discipline  of  poverty,  another  under 
that  of  affluence  ;  one  under  the  discipline  of 
sickness,  another  that  of  health ;  one  in  obscur- 
ity, another  In  the  blaze  of  fame ;  and,  really,  the 
question  which  God  asks  In  regard  to  a  man  Is 
not  merely.  What  is  his  chai^acterf  but.  What 
can  be  made  of  him  ?  Also,  this  life  is  a  small 
matter  compared  with  the  eternal  next ;  so  that 

6 


82  ECCE    TERRA. 

outward  worldly  advantages  are  of  lltde  ac- 
count in  view  of  our  whole  duration.  Of  this 
duration  we  see  but  a  small  part,  and  that 
which  comes  after  death  may  balance  matters 
between  the  righteous  and  the  wicked,  and 
show  that  the  providential  favors  now  granted 
to  the  latter  are  only  such  winning  measures 
and  merciful  respites  as  just  human  govern- 
ments often  grant  to  disloyal  subjects.  Less 
responsibility  is  insisted  on  in  cases  where  less 
advantages  are  given:  the  man  of  one  talent  is 
not  made  answerable  for  ten  talents.  The  lead- 
ing advantao^es  of  life  are  accessible  to  all  on 
the  same  reasonable  terms ;  and  pardon  of  sin, 
a  noble  character,  usefulness,  divine  consola- 
tions, brightest  hopes,  and,  finally,  eternal  sal- 
vadon,  men  are  welcomed  to  with  as  litde  dis- 
crimination as  to  any  city  park  or  thoroughfare 
on  the  high  seas.  Further,  all  things  in  a  man's 
condition  that  are  called  disadvantages,  with  the 
single  exception  of  sin,  for  which  he  alone  is  re- 
sponsible, may  be  made  stepping-stones  to  a 
hio-her  state  than  he  could  have  reached  with- 
out  them:  and  spoils  of  character  to  any  extent 
may  be  conquered  out  of  the  difficulties  and  dis- 
abilides  and  troubles  at  which  men  often  repine; 
as  a  man  may  ascend  by  some  narrow  and  dim 
and  inconvenient  stairs  to  the  top  of  a  tower 
and  to  glorious  prospects,  or  as  a  soldier  may 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLE.  83 

mount  into  a  rich  city  by  means  of  the  very  ' 
stones  hurled  against  him. 

In  all  this  God  is  infinitely  active.  He  de- 
vises and  appoints  the  original  faculties  and 
place  of  every  man  according  to  the  work  he 
is  needed  for.  He  tempers  circumstances 
every  moment  to  these  original  peculiarides, 
so  as  to  give  the  man  the  best  possible  envi- 
ronment for  the  work  he  has  to  do  and  the 
character  he  has  to  attain.  He  sdrs  him  up  to 
make  the  most  of  his  circumstances,  and,  es- 
pecially if  solicited,  grants  all  manner  of  prov- 
idential and  spiritual  aid  to  his  efforts.  In 
short,  he  keeps  perpetual  school  and  university 
for  each  human  being,  and  the  means  and 
methods  of  training  are  as  perfecdy  adapted 
to  each  as  if  there  were  no  others — checking 
and  prompdng,  forbidding  and  commanding, 
o-uardineand  euidino^  without  measure  or  rest, 
so  that  the  final  result  may  be  the  best,  both  for 
the  individual  and  the  public,  which  infinite 
power  and  wisdom  can  secure. 

These  views,  with  modifications,  apply  to 
those  broader  partialisms  with  which  history  is 
chiefly  concerned.  Lapses  of  communides  into 
error  or  sin  or  suffering  are  only  the  aggrega- 
ted lapses  of  individuals  in  the  exercise  of  their 
responsible  freedom.  Besides,  all  causes  are 
not  good  that  seem  so  to  our  hasty  and  dull 


84  ECCE    TERRA. 

vision.  How  often  do  we  find  occasion  to  cor- 
rect, and  even  reverse,  our  first  impressions  of 
public  measures!  And,  then,  experience  goes 
to  show  that  it  is  not  always  best  for  a  really- 
good  cause  to  succeed  at  once.  There  is  a  best 
time,  as  well  as  a  best  way,  for  public  as  well  as 
private  successes.  The  age  needs  a  certain 
ripeness  for  them  in  order  to  use  them. 
Delays,  difficulties,  struggles,  reverses,  can 
strengthen,  purify  and  ennoble  a  cause  as 
much  as  an  individual  person.  And,  then, 
what  if  every  really  good  cause  is  bound  to 
succeed  at  last,  and  to  succeed  all  the  more 
splendidly  by  the  temporary  buffedngs  which 
have  shaken  the  oak  into  strength  and  a  thou- 
sand characters  into  broader  faith,  fortitude  and 
force  ? 

Certainly,  these  views  have  no  look  of  incred- 
ibility about  them.  No  one  is  entitled  to  set 
them  aside  as  inadmissible  at  a  glance.  On  the 
contrary,  they  look  as  if  they  might  be  true. 
One  undertaking  to  prove  that  they  cannot  be 
true  would  have  a  heavy  task  before  him — 
would  have  it  even  if  setting  out  only  to  show 
that  they  are  improbable.  As  suppositions  they 
certainly  deserve  respect — are  at  least  a  good 
working  hypothesis.  And  Christianity,  as  well 
as  natural  religion,  sweats  them  at  every  pore. 
''  The  race  is  not  to  the  swift,  nor  the  batde  to 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.  85 

the  strong,  neither  yet  bread  to  the  wise,  nor 
yet  riches  to  men  of  understanding,  nor  yet 
favor  to  men  of  skill ;  but  time  and  chance  hap- 
peneth  to  them  all."  And  yet  "  the  lot  is  cast 
into  the  lap,  but  the  whole  disposing  thereof 
is  of  the  Lord;"  "Riches  and  honor  come  of 
thee ;"  "  He  putteth  down  one  and  setteth  up 
another." 

But  if  our  suppositions  are  also  facts,  it  fol- 
lows not  only  that  the  divine  Hand  is  largely 
in  the  inequalities  of  human  condition,  but  that 
its  movements  are  radiant  as  the  path  of  a  star  i 
with  wisdom  and  goodness.  Even  the  initial 
appointment  of  such  inequalities  is  no  accusa- 
tion of  his  justice  or  kindness.  Such  things 
must  be  in  every  great  and  wise  scheme.  But 
the  Hand  that  manages  in  these  things  that 
must  be,  and  flashes  unseen  hither  and  thither, 
**  putting  down  one  and  setting  up  another," 
buffeting  here  and  caressing  there,  distributing 
tears  on  the  one  hand  and  smiles  on  the  other, 
is  not  an  eyeless  fate  that  knows  not  and  cares 
not  where  it  smites  or  lifts,  nor  yet  an  ocean 
that  kisses  one  shore  and  thunders  in  storm  on 
another  (perhaps  the  fairest  of  all),  and  yet  is 
the  unthinking  friend  of  all;  but  rather  the  intel- 
ligent monarch  who  is  independent  enough  to 
sacrifice  present  appearances  that  he  may  in  the 
end  dcf  the  best  thing  possible  for  everybody. 


86 


ECCE    TERRA. 


If  the  sins,  errors  and  sufferings  of  the  world 
are  not  inconsistent  with  a  divine  Hand  beino- 
in  them,  still  more  are  not  those  events  into 
which  these  enter  more  or  less  largely,  but 
which  also  include  some  plain  advantages. 
Such,  for  example,  as  these.  The  persecu- 
tions of  the  primitive  Christians,  with  all  the 
guilt  and  misery  they  involved,  contributed  not 
a  little  to  the  purity  and  evidence  of  the  infant 
Church.  The  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  though 
tears  fell  like  rain  and  the  Dark  A^-es  followed, 
helped  the  general  diffusion  of  civilization  and 
Christianity  in  Europe.  The  feudal  system  and 
Crusades,  with  all  their  follies  and  mischiefs, 
w^ere  not  without  their  protecting  and  elevat- 
ing influences  on  the  rude  society  of  the  times. 
Such  men  as  Alexander,  Caesar,  Mohammed, 
Tamerlane,  Napoleon — rough  battle-axes  as 
they  were — lopped  off  some  excrescences  and 
hewed  the  way  for  some  improvements.  Even 
the  Reign  of  Terror  has  furnished  useful  les- 
sons— notably,  that  atheism  means  the  disinte- 
gration of  society.  Not  a  few  of  the  wars, 
pestilences,  famines,  have  been  to  nations  what 
conflagrations  have  sometimes  been  to  cities 
— consuming  rubbish,  cleansing  dens,  finding 
wood  and  leaving  marble.  In  short,  almost  or 
quite  all  the  dark  things  of  the  world  have 
their  "coigns  of  vantage,"  and  in  not  a*few  of 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.  8/ 

them  the  advantages  are  so  great  as  to  start 
the  question  whether  they  may  not  be  In  a  ma- 
jority. Of  course  such  things  are  not  incon- 
sistent with  a  divine  Hand  being  in  them;  for 
it  seems  that  even  sins,  errors  and  sufferings 
in  their  purest  and  most  unreHeved  form  are 
not  inconsistent  with  it.  Still  less  are  those 
things  in  which  stars  glint  through  the  torn 
clouds,  the  air  grows  pure  in  the  sweep  of  the  ^ 
madcap  storm,  an  oasis  is  embosomed  in  the 
desert,  and  even  fragrant  and  beautiful  flowers 
spring  from  an  offensive  dunghill. 

The  sun  has  spots.    Science  does  not  require 
us  to   explain   these  spots   on  the   supposition 
that  the  heart  of  the  sun  is  dark  and  cold,  pro-  ^ 
vided  they  can  be  explained  quite  as  well  on 
the  contrary  supposition. 

The  earth  has  a  broken  surface — rouehnesses 
that  hinder  cultivation,  hills  up  which  men  toil, 
precipices  down  which  men  fall,  mountains  that 
obstruct  sunlight  and  intercourse,  uncouth,  and 
even  awful,  forms  of  disorder  and  ruin.  The 
oceans  of  water  and  air  include  many  draw- 
backs, difficulties,  dangers,  and  some  tragedies ; 
the  atmosphere  is  often  black  with  clouds,  howl- 
ing with  winds,  and  vivid  with  smiting  light- 
nings ;  the  seas  toss  in  storm,  wear  away  fruit- 
ful coasts,  engulf  men  and  property.  On  all 
hands  it  is  agreed  that  philosophy  does  not  re- 


88  ECCE    TERRA. 

quire  us  to  explain  these  disagreeable  things 
on  the  supposition  that  they  come  from  un- 
friendly sources,  because  they  can  be  explained 
equally  well,  for  aught  that  appears,  on  just  the 
contrary  supposition  ;  viz.  that  the  ruggedness 
of  the  land,  the  mobility  of  the  waters,  and  the 
still  greater  mobility  of  the  atmosphere,  are,  on 
the  whole,  most  useful  things  whose  advantages 
greatly  outweigh  the  incidental  disadvantages 
with  which  they  appear  inseparably  connected. 
So,  when  we  look  about  us  and  see  a  moral 
system  which  includes  such  evils  as  temptation, 
sin,  suffering  and  error,  neither  science  nor 
philosophy  requires  us  to  explain  them  on  the 
supposition  that  almighty  goodness  and  wis- 
dom have  not  been  active  in  connection  with 
them ;  because,  for  aught  that  appears,  they 
are  explainable  equally  well  on  just  the  op- 
posite supposition ;  viz.  that  God  brings  to 
bear  upon  them,  in  every  single  instance,  the 
sum  of  his  infinite  attributes,  but  that  it  is  im- 
possible for  him  to  eliminate  them  any  further 
than  he  does  without  sacrificinof  interests  still 
more  valuable  than  the  elimination  would  be. 
Wisdom  and  goodness  make  heavy  limitations 
on  the  exercise  of  even  divine  power;  and 
there  are  limitations  also  in  the  very  nature 
of  power  itself.  There  are  things  that  lie 
quite   without   its    range. 


V. 
ILLUSTRATION  BY  GRLAT  EXAMPLES. 

PART  SECOND. 


V. 
ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES. 

PART   SECOND. 
GREAT   FACTS   POSITIVELY   IN   HARMONY. 

IN  looking  over  the  world,  we  find  in  every 
age  not  merely  dark  things  whose  consist- 
ency with  a  good  divine  government  that  is 
universal  needs  to  be  shown,  but  we  find  also 
a  great  many  bright  things  whose  general  use- 
fulness is  so  clear  that,  instead  of  needing  ex- 
planation, they  are  seen  to  be  just  what  one 
would  naturally  expect  from  the  hand  of  a 
perfect  Being.  That  hand  may  have  direcdy 
established  them  at  the  first,  and  ever  since 
may  have  direcdy  and  earnestly  supported  and 
cherished  them,  they  are  so  plainly  and  con- 
fessedly useful. 

II.  Many  Facts  Positively  Harmonize  with 
THE  Idea  that  a  Divine  Hand  is  in  them. 
Among  these  facts  is  the  institution  of 

I.  The  Family. 
In  all  ages  we  find  this  instltudon,  in  a  form 
more  or  less  pure,  lying  at  the  foundation  of 

91 


92  ECCE    TERRA. 

human  society.  Evils  are  often  found  In  con- 
nection with  It  (there  are  ill-mated,  ill-man- 
nered, quarrelsome,  and  even  leprous  house- 
holds), but  they  are  as  separable  from  the 
family  as  weeds  are  from  a  garden  or  dirt 
from  our  faces.  In  its  own  nature  the  insti- 
tution Is  clean  and  wholesome,  and  even  in- 
dispensable. This  would  be  the  confession  of 
all  intelligent  and  respectable  people.  They 
are  shocked  at  what  the  absence  of  the  family 
implies. 

As  the  source  of  all  the  precious  things  sug- 
gested by  the  word  Home  ;  as  the  mother  of  the 
most  sacred  human  affections ;  as  the  golden 
thread  on  which  are  strung  conjugal,  parental 
and  filial  loves;  as  the  nurse  of  order,  thrift 
and  just  subordination  ;  as  a  provision  for  the 
recognition,  support  and  training  of  children  ; 
as  a  safeguard  against  a  large  class  of  violent 
and  shameful  quarrels,  and  even  against  one 
universal  slough  of  vice  and  crime, — the  family 
enters  into  the  very  foundation  of  all  decent 
and  orderly  society.  We  owe  to  it  a  large 
part  of  the  happiness  which  has  survived  the' 
fall ;  and  were  the  institution  ideally  perfect  in 
every  case,  as  It  nearly  is  in  some  cases,  it 
would  be  a  still  more  brilliant  benefactor  of  the 
world.  It  is  a  world-wide  fact  and  casts  light 
instead  of  shadow. 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.  93 

An  institution  like  this  would  come  as  natu- 
rally from  the  divine  Hand  as  does  the  water 
from  an  opening  at  the  base  of  some  mighty 
and  full  reservoir.  Its  character  and  effects 
harmonize  perfectly  with  the  idea  of  such  an 
origin.  If  we  should  assert  that  God  originally 
organized  the  family  by  a  positive  agency,  and 
now  guards  and  promotes  it  with  the  utmost 
resources  of  his  government,  the  assertion 
would  be  one  of  the  most  credible  of  thino-s. 

<z> 

The  institution  is  worthy  to  come  from  him. 

And  from  him,  say  the  Scriptures,  it  really 
comes.  Not  only  is  his  hand  active  in  and 
about  the  family  relation  (as  it  is,  indeed,  in  and 
about  sin  and  error  even),  but  the  relation  was 
directly  established  by  his  choice  and  agency, 
and  is  guarded  and  cherished  by  his  provi- 
dence, laws  and  Spirit.  He  started  our  race 
in  a  pair.  He  continues  the  sexes  in  about 
equal  numbers.  *'  He  sets  the  solitary  in  fam- 
ilies ;"  "  For  this  cause  shall  a  man  leave  father 
and  mother  and  shall  cleave  to  his  wife ;" 
"  What  God  hath  joined  together  let  not  man 
put  asunder."  Marriage  is  made  indissoluble, 
save  for  a  single  cause.  The  right  of  parents 
to  honor  and  obedience  from  their  children  is 
strongly  enforced.  Both  Old  Testament  and 
New  Testament  lay  down  many  rules  for  fam- 
ily   intercourse,    the    training    of   children,    the 


94  ECCE    TERRA. 

mutual  duties  of  husbands  and  wives,  of  pa- 
rents and  children,  of  brothers  and  sisters.  To 
say  that  the  moral  government  of  God  deals 
largely  in  such  matters  is  the  same  as  saying 
that  his  providential  government  is  ever  power- 
fully busy  in  the  same. 

2.  Civil  Government. 
In  all  large  communities,  present  or  past,  we 
see  persons  making  laws  in  regard  to  the  mu- 
tual relations  of  men,  trying  cases  of  dispute 
arising  under  those  laws,  and  looking  after  their 
enforcement.  Under  the  name  of  patriarchate, 
or  monarchy,  or  •  aristocracy,  or  republic,  or 
democracy,  civil  government  has  had  our  whole 
race  in  its  hand  as  far  back  as  history  casts 
lio-ht.  It  must  be  confessed  that  its  doino^s 
have  not  always  been  perfecdy  sadsfactory. 
We  have  heard  of  great  injustices  and  op- 
pressions at  its  hands.  Bad  laws,  bad  magis- 
trates, unfaithful  judges  and  courts,  are  no 
noveUies  in  any  land ;  and  in  some  lands  they 
are  the  rule  rather  than  the  exceptions.  But 
such  evils  are  excrescences — no  more  essential 
to  a  civil  government  than  warts  or  rags  are  to 
a  man.  Nothing  is  essential  to  it  but  a  system 
of  human  arrangements  for  defining  and  con- 
trolling the  conduct  of  men  toward  each  other. 
Such  a  system,  as  it  may  be,  and  indeed  as  it  is, 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.  95 

is  an  undeniable  blessing.  The  worst  govern- 
ment that  ever  was  is  better  than  no  govern- 
ment at  all.  And  the  best  conceivable,  one 
rooting  itself  thoroughly  in  Christian  principles, 
is  an  unspeakable  godsend  to  any  community. 
This  is  conceded  by  all  respectable  and  reason- 
able people.  A  Nihilist  is  either  a  rogue,  a 
madman,  or  a  fool. 

Civil  government  settles  disputes,  prevents 
personal  retaliations,  punishes  crimes,  puts  in 
fear  the  vicious  elements  of  society,  secures  the 
safety  and  order  necessary  to  industry  and  en- 
terprise and  thrift,  justly  distributes  the  public 
burdens,  enforces  reasonable  subordinations, 
unites  the  resources  of  the  people  for  public 
education  and  other  expensive  works  of  gen- 
eral concern,  conducts  international  intercourse 
and  provides  for  the  public  defence.  In  short, 
it  is  a  blessed  substitute  for  anarchy. 

What  does  anarchy  mean,  in  the  present 
state  of  human  nature?  It  means  all  the  vicious 
and  criminal  classes  let  loose  to  a  carnival  of 
debauchery,  violence,  robbery  and  murder.  This 
at  once  begets  unlimited  peril,  terror,  conflict 
and  retaliation.  In  the  stormy,  boiling  whirl- 
pool and  "madding  crowd"  all  productive  in- 
dustries and  thrift  and  comfort  disappear  till 
some  strong  arm  is  bared  and  raised  aloft  to 
govern.     "God  bless  that  strong  arm!"  shout 


96  ECCE    TERRA. 

^he  peoples;  "the  Reign  of  Terror  is  too  much 
for  us  ;  thanks  for  a  Napoleon  !  He  is  a  har- 
bor from  an  intolerable  storm,  a  heavenly  refuge 
from  an  earthly  hell." 

When  we  are  told  that  this  indispensable  and 
world-wide  institution  came  primarily  from  God, 
instead  of  being  surprised  at  the  news,  and  feel- 
ing under  the  necessity  of  laboriously  explaining 
its  consistency  with  the  goodness  of  an  Almighty 
Ruler,  we  say  that  its  consistency  is  as  evident 
as  the  sun  at  clear  noon — we  even  say  that  civil 
government  is  an  institution  which  God  may 
well  have  positively  and  personally  ordained 
and  established,  as  well  as  defended  and  cher- 
ished. 

And  this  is  what  the  Bible  says  he  has  done. 
Not  only  does  it  show  God  ''setting  up  one  and 
putting  down  another "  particular  ruler  at  his 
pleasure,  not  only  does  it  show  him  dictating 
to  all  rulers  the  principles  on  which  they  must 
govern,  and  requiring  for  them  honor  and  obe- 
dience from  the  people,  but  it  also  declares  that 
*'  the  powers  that  be  are  ordained  of  God,  and 
that  whosoever  resisteth  the  power  resisteth 
the  ordinance  of  God."  Thus  God  is  not 
merely  a  wind  that  sways  the  wood  at  its 
pleasure,  but  is  also  the  soil  out  of  which  the 
wood  springs  and  from  which  it  gets  all  its 
nourishment. 


illustration  by  great  examples.       97 

3.  Nations. 

We  find  mankind  broken  up  into  larg^e 
masses,  each  under  its  own  civil  government. 
Profane  history  does  not  carry  us  back  to  the 
time  when  it  was  otherwise. 

At  first  glance,  one  might  think  this  not  to 
be  one  of  the  bright  facts  of  the  world.  What 
envies,  jealousies,  hatreds,  bad  faiths,  wars, 
wastes  of  public  treasures,  are  often  found  in 
connection  with  the  division  of  mankind  into 
separate  nations !  But  really,  when  one  comes 
to  think  of  it,  the  separation  of  mankind  into 
nations  does  not  necessarily  involve  such  evils. 
We  can  conceive  of  different  governments,  as 
well  as  different  individuals,  living  quietly  side 
by  side  in  generous  fellowship  and  mutual  help- 
fulness. This  has  been,  and  can  be  again.  The 
evils  complained  of  would  not  cease  if  all  men 
were  brought  under  one  huo^e  civil  orovernment. 
Are  there  no  jealousies  and  contests  between 
States  of  the  same  republic  ?  no  civil  wars  be- 
tween Red  Roses  and  White,  between  Guelphs 
and  Ghibellines,  between  Cavaliers  and  Round- 
heads, between  North  and  South  ? 

Just  imagine  a  single  government  undertak- 
ing to  govern  all  mankind !  How  impossible 
for  it  to  adapt  itself  well  to  the  widely-differing 
tastes,  habits,  social  and  moral  conditions  of  so 
many  different  peoples  from  New  England  to 


98  ECCE    TERRA. 

Dahomey!  How  impossible  for  it  even  thor- 
oughly to  supervise  so  vast  a  region  !  How  im- 
possible for  it  promptly  to  meet,  even  if  it  could 
keep  well  aware  of,  the  ever-changing  situation 
and  needs  of  countries  twelve  thousand  miles 
away  from  its  capital !  What  multitudes  of  of- 
ficials, vast  patronage  and  opportunities  for  po- 
litical corruption  of  all  sorts  !  What  a  danger- 
ous accumulation  of  power  in  the  hands  of  the 
man  or  set  of  men  who  have  at  command  the 
resources  of  some  fourteen  hundred  millions 
of  people  !  Nor  could  unity  be  maintained  for 
any  length  of  time.  Like  gravity  or  light,  the 
force  of  civil  government  varies  inversely  as 
the  square  of  the  distance  from  its  source. 
How  much  is  Constantinople  felt  among  the 
Koorcls,  or  Washington  among  the  frontier 
hunters  of  Alaska?  Thouo^h  the  centre  were 
quiet,  the  circumference  would  be  in  a  state  of 
chronic  revolution  at  the  rate  of  a  thousand 
miles  an  hour.  What  centrifugalisms  !  What 
breaking  off  of  zones  and  planets ! — for  once 
evolution  coming  true.  The  huge,  cumbrous 
machine  would  shake  to  pieces  by  its  own 
motion ;  the  Great  Eastern,  whose  very  size 
makes  it  unmanageable,  would  founder  in  the 
storm  which  smaller  and  snugger  crafts  easily 
outride. 

As  to  what  would  be  best  for  a  race  ideally 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.  99 

perfect  we  will  not  undertake  to  say.  But  for 
such  a  race  as  ours  is,  and  always  has  been,  it 
is  plainly  better  for  purposes  of  civil  govern- 
ment that  it  should  be  broken  up  into  commu- 
nities of  manageable  size.  Small  farms  are 
most  profitable.  Armies  beyond  a  certain  size 
cannot  be  well  handled.  Many  independent 
freeholds  are  better  for  a  country  than  a  single 
mammoth  estate.  Schools,  colleges,  and  even 
churches,  cannot  include  over  a  certain  number 
of  persons  without  becoming  unwieldy.  We 
object  to  having  all  our  American  benevolent 
societies  consolidated  into  one — much  more 
should  we  object  to  the  consolidation  of  all 
the  societies  of  Christendom.  It  would  be  like 
chaining  together  all  the  shipping  of  the  world 
in  one  fleet  and  under  one  captain.  "  Divide 
and  conquer "  is  the  motto  in  all  such  cases. 
And  so  it  must  be  in  this  case  of  civil  govern- 
ment. To  secure  the  best  results  the  one  must 
become  many — the  great  numeral  be  resolved 
into  factors,  if  not  into  terms.  In  no  other  way 
can  so  vast  a  field  be  thoroughly  supervised 
and  managed — managed  with  a  due  regard  to 
the  different  characters  and  interests  of  differ- 
ent sections.  But  in  this  way  the  peculiarities 
of  all  sections  may  be  pleasantly  accommodated, 
while  all  may  live  quietly,  side  by  side,  on  the 
best  terms — a  brotherhood  of  nations. 


lOO  ECCE    TERRA. 

So  the  division  of  mankind  into  distinct  na- 
tions, instead  of  being  a  curse,  is  a  blessing; 
as  it  seems  to  me,  a  very  great  blessing.  As 
such  it  harmonizes  perfectly,  not  only  with  the 
doctrine  that  a  divine  Hand  is  in  it  (as  indeed 
it  is  in  sin  itself),  but  also  with  the  doctrine 
that  it  proceeds  directly  from  that  Hand — that 
it  exists  by  the  express  appointment  and  sov- 
ereign personal  action  of  God.  As  says  the 
Bible.  In  the  infancy  of  the  race,  when  it  was 
yet  one  in  place  and  speech,  God  by  a  personal 
act  of  sovereignty  confounded  that  one  speech 
into  many  tongues,  that  so  the  unity  of  man- 
kind might  be  broken  up,  and  the  great  river 
of  humanity  go  forth  through  the  world  in  many 
irrigating  streams  whose  freshets  banks  can  re- 
strain and  bridges  span. 

4.  Literature,  Science  and  Art. 
At  the  present  time  we  find  in  many  lands  a 
vast  body  of  most  useful  books — books  that  in- 
struct the  ignorant,  refresh  the  weary,  spur  the 
sluggish,  console  the  afflicted,  guard  the  tempt- 
ed, enlarge  and  discipline  at  the  same  time  both 
the  intellectual  and  moral  faculties,  show  what 
truth  and  virtue  and  God  are,  and  incite  toward 
them.  They  are  histories,  biographies,  poems, 
epistles,  travels,  essays,  orations,  works  of  imag- 
ination, scientific  works — falling  on  us  like  au- 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       lOI 

tumn  leaves,  and,  like  them,  enriching  where 
they  fall.  How  much  we  owe  to  some  of  these 
works !  How  vastly  have  books  of  science  ex- 
panded our  horizon,  educated  the  young,  em- 
powered our  civilization,  magnified  our  concep- 
tions of  the  Author  of  nature,  and  ministered 
to  the  reverence  and  devotion  and  obedience 
of  good  men !  This  more  especially  in  late 
years.  But  in  every  age,  from  Moses  and 
Homer  and  Confucius  and  the  star-gazers  of 
Chaldea  downward,  on  baked  bricks  or  stony 
monuments,  on  plates  of  metal  or  skin  or  paper, 
some  measure  of  the  civilizing,  refining  and  ele- 
vatino-  influence  of  literature  and  science  has 
been  felt. 

And  in  our  own  time  these  public  benefac- 
tors have  a  large  family  of  handmaids  and  chil- 
dren. Such  are  the  mechanic  arts,  with  their 
innumerable  inventions,  which  have  multiplied, 
almost  beyond  comprehension,  the  safeties,  com- 
forts, powers  and  ornaments  of  both  human 
and  brute  life.  Such  are  the  fine  arts  of 
architecture,  sculpture,  painting  and  music. 
What  feasts  of  sweetness  and  beauty  and  gran- 
deur have  these  spread  on  golden  tables  fon 
hungry  souls  who  crave  something  besides  the 
plain  bread  of  this  workaday  world  ! — children 
as  they  are  of  Him  who  paints  the  flower  and  the 
bird  of  paradise,  chisels  the  sculptor's  models, 


102  ECCE    TERRA. 

sings  in  winds  and  oceans,  and  builds  the  great 
dome  above  us  with  its  pantheons  of  stellar 
systems.  Between  these  two  forms  of  art, 
peasants  are  now  equipped  like  kings.  Those 
mines   on   the   surface   of  the   earth  which  we 

^  call  warehouses  and  museums  are  richer  than 
any  mines  below  the  surface.  You  cannot 
travel  a  few  miles  with  exploring  eyes  in  such  a 
country  as  this  without  finding  more  triumphs 
of  useful  ingenuity,  more  exquisite  treatises  on 
the  sublime  and  beautiful  in  stone  or  wood  or 
metal,  than  tongue  can  well  tell.  What  thrills 
and  exaltations  in  the  presence  of  statues  and 
paintings  and  templed  piles  and  the  music  that 
"  lifts  a  mortal  to  the  skies  or  draws  an  angel 
down"!  How  bare  society  would  be  if  all  that 
art  has  done  for  it  should  be  taken  away !  It 
would  be  like  a  great  house  the  day  after  the 
/  moving,  or  like  the  firmament  with  all  its  stars 
painted   out.     The  colors   are  wiped   off  from 

y  nature,  the  hands  and  feet  of  the  world  are 
cut  off,  the  rich  gamut  of  sounds  is  leveled 
to  a  monotone,  and  that  a  humdrum. 

Of  course,  evils  are  found  connected  with 
these  blessings.  There  are  bad  books,  shame- 
ful  and  shameless  sculptures  and  pictures,  tem- 
ples and  colisea  that  ought  never  to  have  been 
built,  science  that  ''puffeth  up"  and  blasphemes 
God,  hurtful   and   even  "  devilish "  inventions. 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       IO3 

But  these  are  excrescences — the  wens  and 
warts  and  cancers  that  sometimes  grrow  on  a 
man.  Cannot  he  be  a  man  without  them,  and 
even  a  truer  and  completer  man  ?  Cannot  we 
go  through  a  conservatory  and  cast  out  all  thei 
weeds,  and  still  have  a  beautiful  conservatory 
left — indeed,  have  it  all  the  truer  and  brig^hter 
for  that  weeding  and  outcasting  ?  It  is  not  es- 
sential to  literature  that  it  be  frivolous  and 
corrupting ;  to  science,  that  it  be  conceited  or 
materialistic ;  to  art,  that  it  be  a  prodigal  or  a 
wanton.  In  themselves  they  are  such  things 
as  may  flourish  in  heaven  itself.  Call  them  the 
ornaments,  if  not  the  necessities,  of  earth.  A 
man  may  prostrate  others  and  himself  with  a 
loaf  of  bread.  He  may  strangle  himself  in  a 
spring  as  pure  and  sweet  as  man  ever  drank 
from,  or  heaven  ever  saw  itself  in.  But  bless- 
ed be  our  bread  and  water,  nevertheless ! 
And  blessed  be  literature  and  science  and  art, 
though  sometimes  perverted,  and  even  pos- 
sessed with  a  devil ! 

Now,  such  bright  facts  do  not  need  to  be 
laboriously  shown  to  be  consistent  with  a  good 
divine  Hand  beinor  in  them.  Their  consistencv 
is  seen  at  a  glance.  They  are  even  seen  to  be 
such  things  as  the  Hand  might  positively  ap- 
point, promote,  and  even  originate  by  a  direct 
persona/  act,  without  suggesting  a  difficulty  as 


i04  ECCE    TERRA. 

to  its  goodness,  but  rather  illustrating,  empha- 
sizing and  proclaiming  that  goodness. 

And  this  is  what  the  Bible  says  the  Hand 
does.  It  not  only  says  that  ''  ever}/'  good  and 
perfect  gift  is  from  above,"  that  '*  God  giveth 
wisdom,"  that  "  if  a  man  lack  wisdom  let  him 
ask  of  God,"  but  it  gives  particular  instances 
of  literature,  science  and  art  proceeding 
directly  from  his  sovereign  hand ;  as  in  the 
case  of  Bezaleel  and  Aholiab,  the  artists  of  the 
tabernacle ;  of  Solomon,  who  built  the  temple 
after  the  "patterns"  given  by  God  to  David,  and 
to  whom  God  gave  "a  wise  and  understanding 
heart"  in  the  science  of  government,  not  to  say 
in  natural  history ;  of  Daniel  and  his  compan- 
ions, to  whom  God  "gave  skill  in  all  learning 
and  wisdom ;"  of  the  writers  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testament,  every  man  of  whom  "  spake 
as  he  was  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost."  And 
in  every  age  the  experience  of  not  a  few  is  to 
the  effect  that  "  to  have  prayed  well  is  to  have 
studied  well  " — whether  as  artist  or  inventor 
or  author  or  scientist. 

5.  Enjoyments. 
That  there  are  enjoyments  which  do  not  de- 
serve the  name  because  of  their  sinful  and,  in 
the  end,  hurtful  character,  is  plain.     But  it  is 
equally  plain   that  there  are  now  in  the  world, 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        IO5 

and  have  been  through  all  the  known  ages,  al- 
most Innumerable  other  enjoyments  of  a  sound, 
wholesome  and  most  desirable  sort — from  the 
merely  physical  gratification  of  eating  when 
hungry,  drinking  when  thirsty,  resting  when 
weary,  up  through  long  shining  files  to  the 
rapture  of  a  saint  just  unfolding  solar  wings 
for  heaven.  Think  of  sportive  youth  "  tread- 
ing In  air,"  of  health  bounding  like  the  steed  of 
the  desert,  of  the  joy  of  harvest,  of  the  pleas- 
ures of  the  imagination,  of  the  delights  of 
knowledge,  of  the  gratifications  of  taste  In  con- 
nection with  the  grand  and  beautiful  In  nature 
and  art,  of  thrills  of  inventors  and  discoverers, 
of  the  profound  satisfactions  In  difficulties  over- 
come, temptations  resisted,  virtues  achieved, 
useful  things  unselfishly  done,  the  good  name 
that  is  better  than  great  riches  honorably  ac- 
quired ;  think  of  "  sweet  peace  of  conscience, 
heavenly  guest,"  the  brightness  of  celestial  con- 
solations and  hopes,  the  peace  that  flows  like 
a  river,  the  "joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glo- 
ry" of  the  ripest  Christian,  glorious  deathbeds 
which  are  triumphal  chariots  and  mounts  of 
transfiguration  and  ascension  !  Surely,  if  the 
world  should  lose  all  such  things  it  would  lose  j 
more  than  a  purple  robe.  And  they  are  so 
many — so  very  many !  Are  there  any  stars  In 
the  Galaxy  under  the  broadest  of  telescopes? 


I06  ECCE    TERRA. 

Any  light-shafts  in  the  air  when  the  great 
archer-sun  stands  in  the  zenith  and  empties 
his   quiver  ? 

If  we  are  told  that  a  divine  Hand  is  active  in 
all  these  sound  enjoyments — preparing  the  way 
for  them,  directing  their  time  and  other  circum- 
stances, warding  off  enemies,  widening  and  lift- 
ing,  resisting  abuses,  always  striving  to  get  out 
of  them  the  greatest  possible  good — we  see 
nothing  in  the  assertion  that  looks  like  calling 
in  question  the  goodness  of  God.  On  the  con- 
trary, we  can  allow  that  he  has  produced  these 
enjoyments  of  set  purpose  and  with  his  own 
right  hand,  and  yet  find  in  the  fact  only  an 
illustration  and  emphasis  of  his  goodness.  That 
he  does  sometimes  directly  originate  such  enjoy- 
ments is  plain  from  the  fact  that  men  often  do 
as  much,  and  might  do  it  still  oftener.  Can  God 
do  less  than  man  ?  Do  not  our  consciences, 
with  all  their  precious  "  well-dones,"  come  from 
his  framing  hand  ?  And  do  we  not  read  of  the 
*' Comforter,"  and  of  the  "joy  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,"  and  of  the  "  fruit  of  the  Spirit  which 
is  joy  "?  So  it  is  not  always  as  the  first  link  in 
a  long  golden  chain  of  causes  that  God  appears 
in  such  passages  as  the  following :  "  My  peace 
I  give  unto  you  ;"  "God  giveth  to  a  man  that  is 
good  in  his  sight  wisdom  and  knowledge  and 
joy ;"  "  He  giveth  songs  in  the  night." 


illustration  by  great  examples.     lo/ 

6.  Virtues  and  Usefulnesses. 

We  have  had  to  open  eyes  on  depravities 
and  sins  and  harms  as  entering  largely  into 
the  history  of  the  world.  But  history  has  a  per 
contra.  Veins  of  silver  and  gold,  sometimes 
wonderfully  rich  in  great  nuggets  of  pure  metal 
and  precious  stones,  run  through  the  dark  and 
flinty  ground.  Amiabilities,  fortitudes,  candors, 
generosities,  pities,  mercy,  justice,  honesty, 
unselfishness,  purity,  integrity,  conscientious- 
ness, resignation,  patience,  philanthropy,  mor- 
ality, piety,  virtue,  magnanimity,  holiness — the 
things  which  a  hundred  such  words  are  used 
to  signify — are  no  poetical  fictions,  but  real 
existences  ever  turning  up  In  our  observation 
and  reading.  Names  are  often  misapplied. 
All  is  not  gold  that  glitters.  That  is  often 
called  integrity  or  virtue  which  Is  only  an  imi- 
tation, sorry  or  otherwise.  But  none  of  us 
doubt  that  there  are  almost  innumerable  ex- 
amples in  actual  life  of  what  deserves  such  a 
grand  name — sometimes  most  dazzling  exam- 
ples, not  only  of  single  virtues,  but  of  clusters 
of  them  in  the  same  person  ;  not  only  of  mo- 
mentary actions,  but  of  long  careers  of  splen- 
did goodness  and  usefulness.  We  shade  our 
eyes  from  the  glory.  Shall  we  say,  "  Hail,  Cato 
the  Censor,  Scipio  the  continent,  Socrates  the 


Io8  ECCE    TERRA. 

brave  lover  of  truth  and  hater  of  shams"?  At 
least  we  will  say,  "  Hail,  Abraham  the  faithful, 
Joseph  the  chaste,  Moses  the  meek,  Daniel  the 
incorruptible!  Hail,  holy  prophets  and  apostles, 
martyrs  and  confessors,  whose  principles  were 
stronger  than  death !  Hail,  men  in  every  age 
who  have  put  on  righteousness  as  a  robe  and  a 
diadem,  saviors  of  nations,  examples  to  the  ages, 
ornaments  of  human  nature,  the  bulwarks  of 
public  morals,  the  glory  of  history — sometimes 
learned  and  sometimes  ignorant,  now  robed 
in  serge  and  now  in  purple,  here  great  ban- 
nered triremes  intellectually  and  there  little 
dories,  great  calcium-lights  of  goodness  hid 
away  in  lowly  corners  or  blazing  away  from 
the  gilded  domes  and  pinnacles  of  the  world, 
—all  hail!" 

Such  things  are  the  loveliest  and  grandest 
of  all  beneath  the  sun — are  bricrhter  than  the 
sun  itself.  All  men  know  it,  all  candid  men 
confess  it.  Such  heroically  righteous  lives  as 
some  men  have  lived !  They  astonish  me,  they 
thrill  me.  I  seem  to  see  all  the  fine  arts  crys- 
tallized into  a  man.  I  turn  my  back  on  sunrises 
and  sunsets.  I  turn  away  from  galleries,  Uffizis 
or  Pittis,  flanked  with  famous  masterpieces,  even 
from  that  sapphire  gallery  whose  masterpieces 
are  sun  and  moon  and  stars, — turn  away  to  gaze 
absorbedly  on  something  more  masterly  still,  on 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        IO9 

some  glorious  beggar  of  whom  the  world  is  not 
worthy.  Saints  of  God!  Salt  of  the  earth! 
Lights  of  the  world!  Stately  ships  ploughing 
through  electric  seas  that  glow  and  flame  be- 
hind them  !  Bright  rivers  streaming  away  to 
a  golden  ocean,  and,  as  they  go,  enriching  the 
earth  and  reflecting  the  glory  of  the  sky!  Does 
any  one  contradict? 

Do  such  things  as  these  give  trouble  to  one 
who  is  trying  to  justify  the  ways  of  God  to 
men  ?  When  he  is  told  that  God's  hand  is  in 
them,  he  says  at  once,  "  I  can  well  believe  it — 
can  even  believe  that  God  ardently  desires, 
deliberately  plans  for  and  personally  works, 
such  excellent  things.  They  are  so  excellent ! 
so  clearly,  wholly  and  superbly  exceflent! 
Just  what  one  would  have  expected  from  such 
a  Being.  They  are  illustrations  of  him,  and 
not  shadows.  They  are  chords,  and  not  dis- 
cords. They  are  spurs  to  faith,  and  not  re- 
pressing bits."  And  faith  quickens  as  we  read 
that  God  ''  creates  in  men  new  hearts,"  that  he 
"works  in  them  to  will  and  do,"  that  all  vir- 
tues are  "fruits  of  the  Spirit,"  and  that  we  must 
cry  out  to  him,  "Thy  kingdom  come,  thy  will  be 
done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven." 

But  besides  virtues  and  virtuous  careers 
there  have  been  many  useful  actions  and  lives 
which  cannot  be  called  virtuous.     Confessedly 


no  ECCE    TERRA. 

bad  men  sometimes  propose  measures,  start 
enterprises,  perform  deeds  of  great  public  ser- 
vice. They  are  statesmen,  warriors,  scholars, 
orators  and  many  others  of  humbler  name,  who, 
led  mainly  by  pride  and  a  selfish  ambition,  have 
yet  become  saviors  of  nations  and  benefactors 
of  the  race.  They  builded  better  than  they 
knew.  Like  Columbus,  without  design  they 
gave  a  new  world  to  free  institutions  and  a  free 
religion.  History  abounds  in  such  useful  things, 
as  well  as  in  useful  events  that  flow  from  other 
sources  than  men ;  such  as  frosts  that  put  a  stop 
to  the  pestilence,  a  storm  that  purifies  the  air,  a 
fire  that  cleans  out  the  city  slums  and  begins  a 
new  era  of  hope  and  improvement  for  the  de- 
voured Sodom.  When  religion  comes  forward 
to  say  that  there  is  an  overruling  providence  in 
these  events,  we  see  nothinor  in  them  that  even 
seems  to  object.  All  that  we  see  is  confirma- 
tory. We  have  a  harmony  instead  of  a  discord. 
The  facts  are  just  as  if  the  doctrine  were  true. 
So  far  as  they  are  concerned,  lights  instead  of 
shadows  are  cast  on  the  old-time  teaching  that 
''  there  is  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends,  rough 
hew  them  as  w^e  will." 

7.  Great  Victories  of  Truth  and  Right. 
I  do  not  know  what  my  readers  would  call 
such  victories.     We  might  differ  somewhat  as 


IL LUSTRA  TION  B  V  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        I  I  I 

to  particulars.  But  we  would  not  differ  on  this 
— viz.  that  in  the  long  stretch  of  the  past  there 
have  been  many  cases  in  which  truth  has  bat- 
ded  with  error,  right  with  wrong,  good  causes 
with  bad,  and  at  last  signally  triumphed.  To 
me  such  triumphs  are  found  in  the  success  of 
the  Greeks  over  Xerxes,  of  the  Maccabees  over 
the  Syrians,  of  Constantine  over  Maxentius,  of 
Alfred  the  Great  over  the  Northmen,  of  Bruce 
over  the  Southrons,  of  the  Netherlands  over 
Spain,  of  William  of  Orange  over  the  Romanist 
Stuarts — in  the  success  of  educadon  over  illit- 
eracy, of  constitutionalism  over  absolutism,  of 
law  over  anarchy,  of  tolerance  over  intolerance, 
of  the  Renaissance  over  the  Dark  Ages,  of  the 
Copernican  astronomy  over  the  Ptolemaic,  of 
Bacon  over  Aristode,  of  civilizadon  over  the 
barricades  of  Africa,  of  the  Cross  over  the 
Crescent,  of  God  over  Jupiter  and  other  stones 
whether  rudely  or  beaudfully  chiseled  ;  nodng 
especially  the  wonderful  success  of  Christian 
missions  in  the  gradual  amelioration  of  life  at 
large. 

If  you  hesitate  on  some  of  these  examples, 
put  others  in  their  place  to  your  satisfaction, 
and  then  join  me  in  saying  that  the  number  of 
such  shining  victories  is  not  inconsiderable,  that 
they  have  often  been  exceedingly  brilliant,  and 
that  somedmes   they  have  run  together  as  do 


112  ECCE    TERRA. 

contiguous  fires,  and  gloriously  streamed  away- 
over  the  world  as  a  broad  luminous  river  with 
many  tributaries ;  as  when  Kepler  and  Bacon 
and  Galileo  and  Newton  joined  hands  with 
Columbus  and  Luther  and  Erasmus  and  many 
another  in  dissipating  mediaevalism,  and  in  giv- 
ing new  worlds,  above  and  below,  to  mankind ; 
and,  still  more  notably,  in  the  case  of  the  later 
Protestant  missions. 

One  feels  like  singing  the  songs  of  Miriam 
and  Deborah  over  such  victories.  Glorious 
bonfires  among  the  ages,  burning  up  refuse 
and  purifying  the  air;  beacons  of  warning  to 
the  bad  and  of  courage  to  the  srood ;  earth- 
stars  which  the  sky-stars  almost  envy,  but  at 
last  conclude  to  call  brothers, — it  is  a  smooth 
way  for  our  theism  among  these.  We  can  ad- 
mit that  a  orood  divine  Hand  is  active  in  such 
things  to  any  extent  without  being  at  all  stum- 
bled. We  could  even  see  a  positive  illustration 
and  proclamation  of  his  goodness  were  God 
himself  to  descend  personally  into  the  field  of 
battle,  and  with  his  own  right  hand  hew  the  way 
to  victory.  That  he  sometimes  actually  does 
what  amounts  to  this,  will  be  most  readily  ad- 
mitted by  him  who  has  most  fully  drank  into 
the  spirit  of  those  Scriptures  which  tell  of  the 
Lord  who  is  mighty  in  battle,  who  marshals 
Armageddons,  who  girds  his  sword  on  his  thigh, 


ILLUSTRATION  BY   GREAT  EXAMPLES.        II3 

and  rides  prosperously  because  of   trudi  and 
meekness  and  righteousness. 

8.  Richly-deserved  Calamities. 
*'And  it  shall  come  to  pass  that  the  ears  of 
every  one  that  heareth  shall  tingle."  The 
calamity  was  so  great.  But,  while  we  are 
startled,  our  sense  of  justice  is  not  shocked. 
The  sufferers  deserved  what  they  suffered.  It 
was  right  that  such  high-handed  evil-doers 
should  be  made  an  example  of.  I  mean  you, 
Adam  and  Eve,  driven  from  the  happy  garden 
which  you  have  forfeited  by  deliberate  disobe- 
dience. I  mean  you,  antediluvians,  who  filled 
the  earth  with  violence  and  impiety,  and  then 
were  swept  clean  away  by  the  unsparing  Flood. 
I  mean  you.  Sodomites,  whose  vices  first  smelt 
to  heaven,  and  then  the  brimstone  smoke  of 
your  burning.  I  mean  you,  Egypt,  enslaving 
God's  people  four  hundred  years,  and  then 
flailed  with  plagues  and  buried  under  the  Red 
Sea.  I  mean  you,  Babylon  or  Nineveh,  proud 
spoiler  of  the  nations  with  an  eye  that  never 
pitied,  and  then  given  over  to  spoilers  who  did 
to  you  as  you  had  done  to  others.  I  mean  you, 
backsliding  Israel,  apostatizing  to  the  infinite 
abominations  of  the  heathen,  and  then  becom- 
ing the  Lost  Tribes.  And  you,  ye  Jews,  cruci- 
fying the  Lord  of  glory,  and  then  scattered  and 


114  ECCE    TERRA. 

peeled  among  all  nations.  And  you,  Spain, 
sickening  history  with  your  brutal  cruelties  in 
the  New  World,  and  then  hunted  to  the  mean- 
est place  among  European  nations.  And  you, 
ye  Neros  and  Caligulas  and  Hyder  Alis,  who 
sowed  the  wind  and  reaped  the  whirlwind. 
From  the  beginning  till  now  hard  things  have 
"  blurted  out  "  on  hard  men — not  with  regular- 
ity, as  though  this  world  were  one  of  retribu- 
tion, but  as  occasional  hints  that  Heaven  is  not 
dead  nor  asleep,  as  trumpet-blasts  sent  forward 
at  irregular  intervals  from  the  advancing  armies 
of  avenging  Justice  to  warn  the  sinner  that  they 
are  on  their  way  and  will  arrive  sooner  or  later. 
I  do  not  know  what  would  become  of  this  dar- 
ing, reckless,  God- forgetting  world  if  such 
"alarums"  did  not  sometimes  burst  out  on 
men  in  advance  of  the  judgment  day.  All 
good  men  say  Anient  to  them.  They  are  fitting 
things,  a  salutary  lesson,  a  just  rebuke. 

Sad  as  are  many  things  about  such  judg- 
ments, all  their  shadows  point  away  from  God, 
as  do  those  of  all  natural  objects  (Sinai,  Geri- 
zim  and  Calvary  included)  away  from  the  sun. 
We  can  allow  that  his  hand  is  in  them,  and 
even  that  it  is  the  volcanic  mouth  from  which 
the  chastising  lava  flows,  and  yet  see  in  that 
lava  only  the  fact  that  God  is  righteous  as  well 
as  mighty.     In  the  Old  Testament  how  many 


ILLUSTRATION  BY   GREAT  EXAMPLES.        II5 

great  and  sore  judgments  does  he  threaten  for 
great  and  sore  guilt !  How  many  actual  disas- 
ters to  nations  and  individuals  are  there  traced 
to  his  sovereign  decree  chastising  for  wrong 
done  !  How  many  vials  of  wrath  do  the  angels 
of  the  Apocalypse  pour  out  at  his  bidding  on 
the  guilty  nations!  In  both  Old  Testament  and 
New  how  much  after  this  strain  :  "  Thus  saith 
the  Lord,  I  send  my  four  sore  judgments  on 
Jerusalem — the  sword  and  the  famine  and  the 
noisome  beast  and  the  pestilence"  !  Surely, 
"God  distributeth  sorrows  in  his  anger."  In 
such  passages  we  almost  see  the  Hand  smiting 
offenders  ;  and  as  we  see  we  feel  bound  to  say, 
"Just  and  true  are  thy  judgments,  O  Lord." 
They  are  precisely  what  we  should  have  ex- 
pected from  the  best  of  rulers.  An  objection  ? 
Rather  an  emphasis  and  illustration  of  the 
doctrine  that  the  great  Hand  that  made  all  is 
in  all. 

9.  Respites  of  Sinners. 
But  disaster  does  not  always  immediately  fol- 
low sin.  Even  gross  sins — nay,  sins  that  seem 
superlative  and  shocking  beyond  endurance — 
are  generally  committed  without  Heaven  mak- 
ing any  sign.  The  earth  is  just  as  green,  the 
sky  just  as  blue,  and  the  sinner  just  as  un- 
harmed as  ever.  And  so  for  long  periods. 
Suns   rise  and   set,  month  after  month   glides 


Il6  ECCE    TERRA. 

quietly  away,  even  years  add  themselves  to 
years,  and  yet  the  scourge  does  not  fall.  Some 
hastily  say,  "Is  there  not  injustice  here?"  or, 
''  Does  God  care?"  or,  "  Is  there  any  God  to  no- 
tice and  punish?"  And  so,  ''because  sentence 
against  an  evil  work  is  not  executed  speedily, 
the  hearts  of  the  sons  of  men  are  fully  set  in 
them  to  do  evil."  But  yet  we  all  know,  when 
we  reflect  a  moment,  that  forbearance  and  pa- 
tience and  long-suffering,  so  far  from  being 
stumbling  things,  are  really  after  the  manner 
of  a  good  king  who  has  supreme  confidence  in 
the  stability  of  his  throne  and  wishes  to  do  his 
utmost  in  the  way  of  sparing  and  reclaiming. 
It  is  just  what  one  would  expect  from  a  strong 
and  benevolent  government.  It  is  a  positive 
illustration  of  both  its  goodness  and  its 
strength.  And  so  we  easily  and  naturally 
say,  as  we  notice  what  respites  sinners  gene- 
rally have,  ''  God  is  waiting  to  be  gracious. 
He  is  keeping  the  door  open  for  an  escape. 
He  is  'not  slack  concerning  his  promise  as  men 
count  slackness,  but  is  long-suffering  to  us- 
ward,  not  willing  that  any  should  perish,  but 
that  all  should  come  to  repentance.'  "  In  short, 
when  we  are  told  that  the  hand  of  a  merciful 
King  is  in  these  forbearances,  that  they  are  a 
leadine  feature  of  his  scheme  of  orovernment, 
we   see  nothing  to  object,  but   rather   see  the 


IL L  USTRA  TION  B  V  GREA  T  EXAMPLES.        1 1  / 

facts  greeting  the  doctrine  with  friendly  voice 
and  embracing  arms. 

lo.  The  Reign  of  Law. 

This  is  one  of  the  plainest  of  facts  in  the  ma- 
terial kino-dom.  Here,  from  the  orbs  of  the 
sky  to  the  grass-blades  beneath  our  feet, 
everything  acts  or  changes  according  to  fixed 
modes.  We  find  laws  of  heat,  of  light,  of 
chemistry,  of  health,  of  solids,  of  gases — in 
short,  of  all  that  we  know  in  the  heavens  and 
earth.  It  is  fashionable  not  only  to  allow  this, 
but  to  insist  on  it  as  being  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant and  grand  of  facts.  In  historic  matters 
the  reien  of  law  is  not  so  evident ;  but  still  it  is 
easy  to  see  that  even  such  matters  are  largely 
affected  by  the  orderly  brute  forces  in  which 
they  are  embosomed  ;  and,  when  long  periods 
and  many  individuals  are  taken  into  account, 
laws  beein  to  show  themselves,  so  that  Social 
and  Political  Science  finds  a  foundation  for 
itself  while  saying,  "The  thing  that  has  been 
is  the  thing  that  shall  be,  and  there  is  nothing 
new  under  the  sun." 

What  a  useful  fact  this  is  !  However  well  it 
may  be  for  God  occasionally  to  assert  his  su- 
premacy over  nature  and  accredit  his  messages 
to  men  by  miracles,  it  would  be  a  general  catas- 
trophe   if   this    were  to    become   a   haphazard 


Il8  ECCE    TERRA. 

world,  without  fixed  modes  and  sequences. 
Through  these  alone  is  science  possible.  By 
them  alone  does  experience  become  a  teacher 
to  us.  Without  them  history  throws  no  light 
on  our  path,  and  we  are  no  longer  able  to 
stand  on  the  shoulders  of  other  generations 
and  so  see  farther  than  they.  Were  chance 
suddenly  to  take  the  place  of  law  in  the  uni- 
verse, it  would  practically  nullify  all  the  accum- 
ulations of  knowledge  during  bygone  centuries. 
The  reign  of  law,  therefore,  casts  lights,  and 
not  shadows,  in  the  direction  of  God  and  his 
government.  It  is  a  harmony  mstead  of  an  in- 
consistency with  our  theology.  We  expect 
from  every  human  government  set  methods 
of  administration  which  can  be  depended  on  ; 
and  we  certainly  should  expect  no  less  from 
the  great  Sovereign  above,  of  whom  it  is  writ- 
ten that  he  makes  the  dayspring  to  know  its 
place  and  the  sun  to  know  his  going  down,  ap- 
points the  moon  for  seasons,  causes  that  seed- 
time and  harvest  shall  not  fail,  sets  bars  and 
doors  to  the  deep,  establishes  the  ordinances 
of  heaven  and  all  the  ends  of  the  earth.  We 
have  a  verisimilitude  and  illustration  of  the  di- 
vine goodness  instead  of  a  denial  or  suspicion. 

Our   enumeration   of  bright   facts   might   be 
carried    much    farther.       That    the    system    of 


IL  L  US  TEA  TION  B  V  GREA  T  EX  A  MPL  ES.        1 1 9 

things  in  which  we  live  is  largely  mysterious 
to  such  beings  as  ourselves ;  that  in  some  way 
the  main  religious  ideas  have  been  conserved 
all  over  the  world  in  all  ages ;  that  there  are 
great  scope  and  demand  for  faith  in  God 
among  men  ;  that  sin  and  error  are  allowed  to 
show  out,  to  some  extent,  their  nature  by  their 
fruits  ;  that  the  world  is  made  a  thorny  one 
for  sinners ;  that,  while  respite  and  forbearance 
are  the  rule  with  men,  there  are  occasional  out- 
bursts of  judgment  on  signal  offenders ;  that 
even  the  good  find  life  disciplinary,  suffer  more 
or  less  from  the  follies  and  sins  of  the  bad,  and 
so  have  a  personal  interest  in  promoting  public 
intelligence  and  virtue ;  that  sin  is  largely  over- 
ruled for  good;  that  there  are  in  the  world 
grand  opportunities  for  cultivating  patience, 
courage,  fortitude,  sympathy,  helpfulness  and 
many  good  and  noble  traits ;  that  light  and 
other  advantages  are  apt  to  be  withdrawn  on 
abuse;  that  God  hides  himself  from  the  wicked 
and  reveals  himself  more  and  more  to  the  good, 
— I  say,  that  great  numbers  of  such  reasonable 
and  useful  facts  are  just  what  we  should  look 
for  in  a  scheme  of  things  through  all  parts  of 
which  sways  and  works  a  divine  Hand.  And 
they  are  what  we  actually  find.  Do  they  frown 
on  our  doctrine?  Nay,  they  look  toward  it 
with  friendly  and  even  affectionate  eyes. 


I20  ECCE    TERRA. 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  some  noisome 
inorganic  substances  (certainly  no  more  noi- 
some than  sin),  such  useful  things  as  water, 
air  and  light  accord  perfectly  with  the  idea 
of  a  good  God  who  cherishes,  and  even  made, 
them.  Whatever  may  be  thought  of  some  nox- 
ious plants  (certainly  no  more  noxious  than  sin), 
such  useful  things  as  orrass  and  flowers  and 
fruits  and  grains  and  forests  are  just  what  one 
would  expect  a  good  divine  Power  to  foster, 
and  even  make.  Whatever  may  be  thought  of 
some  venomous  animals  (certainly  no  more  ven- 
omous than  sin),  such  things  as  the  more  useful 
domestic  animals  and  many  birds  of  wondrous 
beauty  or  song  are  certainly  the  very  opposite 
of  objections  to  the  idea  that  a  good  God  is  to 
them  both  a  Providence  and  a  Maker.  What- 
ever may  be  thought  of  sin  and  its  related 
evils  (certainly  not  irreconcilables),  such  things 
as  happiness,  virtue,  truth,  the  great  ethnic  in- 
stitutions which  furnish  these  a  congenial  strong- 
hold,  the  brilliant  victories  won  in  the  name  of 
science,  humanity  or  God, — I  say,  these  are  what, 
a  pi^iori,  we  should  suppose  would  find  active 
support,  if  not  origin,  in  a  benevolent  divine 
Hand.  They  are  just  the  children  to  come 
from  such  a  parent,  just  the  music  to  sound 
from  such  lips,  just  the  rays  to  shoot  from 
such  a  sun. 


VI. 
ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES. 

TART   THIRD. 


VI. 
ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES. 

PART  THIRD. 
GREAT   FACTS   POSITIVELY   DEMANDING. 


T 


O    complete    our   argument   we    need    to 
illustrate  the  following  proposition : 


III.  Not  a  Few  Facts  positively  Demand  the 
Presence  in  them  of  a  Divine  Hand. 
Under  this  head  it  is  proposed  to  cite  only- 
such  facts  as  can  be  shown  to  be  of  signal 
greatness  on  their  own  account,  as  well  as  on 
account  of  the  great  Hand  that  is  in  them. 
Such  facts  quicken  interest,  impress  the  mem- 
ory, arouse  and  empower  the  thought  as  less 
striking  facts  cannot.  They  seem  specially 
worthy  of  a  divine  interposition.  They  trend 
toward  the  supernatural,  naturally  invite  our 
faith  in  that  direction,  and,  in  some  cases,  al- 
most contain  an  incipient  promise  that  if  we 
look  for  a  divine  Hand  we  shall  find  it.  And, 
if  it  is  found,  they  do  for  it  what  a  rich  frame 
does  for  a  great  painting,  or  a  choice  setting 


Ui 


124  ECCE    TERRA. 

does  for  a  precious  jewel.  Accordingly,  I  ask 
particular  attention  to  the  greatness  of  the  facts 
now  to  be  cited. 

I.  Matter. 

What  Is  that  ultimate  material  of  which  the 
earth  is  composed  ?  Let  him  answer  who  can. 
The  profoundest  and  acutest  minds  have  now 
for  ages  been  straining  away  at  the  question, 
and  yet  the  solution  seems  as  far  off  as  ever. 
Matter  Is  still  a  great  mystery.  And  yet  we 
know  some  striking  things  about  It. 

The  last  atoms  composing  any  given  bit  of 
matter  are  almost  infinitely  small.  Neither  our 
eyes  nor  our  instruments  can  discern  them. 
The  smallest  bit  of  dust  that  we  can  take  up 
on  the  point  of  a  knife,  or  Indeed  can  see  by 
a  microscope  magnifying  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  times.  Is  almost  a  world  to  one  of  its 
last  particles.  A  grain  of  musk  will  give  a 
sensible  odor  through  a  room  for  twenty  years. 
This  it  does  by  filling  the  air  with  its  particles, 
but  so  inconceivably  small  are  these  that  If  the 
musk  is  weighed  at  the  end  of  the  twenty  years 
no  loss  of  welorht  can  be  noticed.  A  crrain  of 
copper  dissolved  In  nitric  acid  will  give  a  blue 
color  to  three  pints  of  water.  Each  atom  of 
the  water  must  have  something  of  the  copper, 
which  is  thus  separated  Into  no  less  than  one 


IL  L  US  TRA  TION  B  Y   GREA  T  EX  A  MPL  ES.        I  2  5 

hundred  million  parts.  Eight  ounces  of  spider- 
web  would  oo  round  the  earth  about  a  thousand 
times — that  is,  would  stretch  twenty-four  mil- 
lions of  miles. 

Such  are  the  atoms!  And  yet  they  are 
heaped  together  in  such  numbers  as  to  make 
the  great  earth.  How  many  of  them  are  there 
in  a  globe  eight  thousand  miles  through?  "As 
the  sand  on  the  sea-shore  innumerable "  is  a 
strong  comparison,  but  right  in  its  neighbor- 
hood lies  the  material  for  another  wonderfully 
stronger. 

There  are,  according  to  present  knowledge, 
some  sixty  different  sorts  of  these  infinitely 
small  particles.  They  must  differ  from  each 
other  as  widely  in  qualities  as  do  the  widely- 
different  substances  they  compose.  Each  of 
them  is  a  crystal,  having  a  symmetrical  form 
peculiar  to  itself.  Each  of  them  has  solved  for 
itself  the  problem  of  perpetual  motion,  being  in 
a  state  of  continual  transfer  from  one  object  to 
another,  sometimes  at  the  rate  of  more  than  one 
hundred  and  eighty  thousand  miles  a  second, 
and  some  scientists  say  eight  million  times  this 
figure. 

Think  of  the  marvels  of  chemical  affinities; 
of  the  stupendous  velocities  and  mechanical 
forces  that  belong  to  what  we  call  heat,  light, 
electricity ;   of  the  profound  mystery  of   these 


126 


ECCE    TERRA. 


things,  whether  they  be  considered  elemental 
matter  or  only  states  of  such  matter;  of  that 
astounding  property  of  gravity  in  virtue  of 
which  each  atom  attracts  at  the  same  instant 
every  other  atom,  however  remote,  through  the 
whole  universe — acts  where  it  is  not,  acts  at 
infinite  distances  from  itself,  acts  on  an  infinite 
number  of  things  at  the  same  moment.  Un- 
doubtedly, the  atoms  are  the  last  hiding-places 
of  that  great  mystery  which  we  call  physical 
force.  They  are  the  fountains  and  seeds,  the 
fathers  and  mothers,  of  those  great  dynamics 
that  sometimes  shake  the  world. 

Now,  heathen  philosophers  have  largely  sup- 
posed matter  to  be  eternal.  In  this  respect, 
as  in  many  others,  they  are  followed  by  atheists 
of  the  present  day.  But  believers  in  God  and 
the  Scriptures  are  one  in  the  opinion  that  mat- 
ter was  strictly  created — made  out  of  nothing. 

The  statements  of  the  Bible  in  regard  to  the 
power  of  the  Almighty  are  so  intense  and 
broad,  and  even  scornful  of  limitations ;  so 
mighty  an  exception  would  have  to  be  made 
to  the  "  all  things  were  made  by  him,  and  without 
him  was  not  anything  made  that  was  made  J'  if  we 
must  except  the  whole  infinite  kingdom  of  ma- 
terial substance  with  its  various  elements,  pro- 
perties, forces  and  natural  combinations ;  the 
power  to  create  matter  differs  so  litde,  if  at  all, 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        12/ 

as  regards  difficulty  of  conception,  from  other 
attributes  freely  ascribed  to  God  in  his  word, 
such  as  self-existence,  intuitive  knowledge  of 
all  things,  incessant  and  eternal  vigilance  and 
action  without  weariness,  power  to  accomplish 
the  grandest  results  instantaneously  at  any  dis- 
tance simply  by  willing,  power  to  make  souls — 
whether  viewed  as  being  in  their  very  nature 
thinking,  feeling,  willing,  moral  substances,  or 
as  substances  to  which  these  qualities  have 
been  given  by  organization  or  otherwise ; — in 
a  word,  the  drift  of  revelation  is  such  as  to 
carry  all  unresisting  minds  into  the  presence 
of  a  Creator.  Especially  after  they  have  been 
set  forward  by  such  a  special  current  as  this : 
''The  things  that  are  seen  were  not  made  of 
things  that  do  appear!' 

So,  once  the  regions  of  space,  now  occupied 
by  the  worlds,  were  wholly  vacant  of  them. 
Suddenly  the  vacancy  became  occupied  by 
such  earthy  substances  as  we  see  around  us. 
Out  of  the  black  waters  of  pure  zero  flashed  ^ 
the  oxygen,  the  nitrogen,  the  hydrogen,  the  car- 
bon and  whatever  other  elements  enter  into  the 
ultimate  substratum  of  material  nature — wheth- 
er that  just  at  hand  in  our  own  planet  or  yonder 
in  the  fires  of  the  sun,  or  still  yonder  in  the 
far-away  stars  seen  only  by  the  great  eye  of 
the  largest  telescope,  or  not  seen  at  all  by  man. 


128  ECCE    TERRA. 

Whence  that  wondrous  birth  ?  Thines  do 
not  make  themselves,  save  in  the  philosophy 
of  babyhood.  On  our  own  plane  we  find  no 
force  that  even  suggests  the  possibility  of 
producing  something  out  of  nothing.  It  is 
only  when  we  look  up,  far  up,  until  at  last  our 
wearied  and  dazzled  sight  reaches  the  utmost 
summit  of  being,  and  Him  to  whom  "  all  things 
are  possible,"  that  we  reach  our  answer.  Be- 
hold the  Creator !  Here  is  One  who  is  not 
merely  an  infinitely  enlarged  man,  differing 
from  us  only  in  degree,  but  One  whose  nature 
differs  from  ours  in  kijid — possessing  that  most 
incomprehensible  though  credible  faculty  of 
doing  all  things  without  means  of  doing,  as 
well  as  of  knowing  all  things  without  means 
of  knowing. 

''Ex  7iihilo  nihil  fif  is  a  mistake.  There  is 
a  better  as  well  as  an  older  maxim  to  substitute 
for  it,  which  we  beg  leave  to  commend  to  the 
notice  of  "philosophers" — viz.:  "In  the  begin- 
ninor  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth." 
When  that  beginning  was  we  cannot  tell.  We 
cannot  tell  whether  it  was  at  one  time  or  at 
many  times.  For  aught  we  know,  creation 
may  have  been  taking  place  at  intervals  all 
along  a  past  eternity — may  be  taking  place 
still.  Why  could  not  the  power  that  calls 
matter    from    nothing    insert   at   any    moment 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        1 29 

new  masses  of  matter  among  the  old,  so  as 
not  to  destroy  the  equihbrium  of  the  system, 
only  readjusting  it?  Certainly,  this  we  know, 
that  whenever  creation  has  occurred  it  has  been 
by  divine  power.  Also,  the  time  or  times  of 
the  event,  the  places  in  boundless  space  where 
it  took  place,  the  various  sorts  of  matter  made 
and  their  proportion  to  each  other,  must  have 
been  fixed  upon  by  the  divine  Will. 

2.  A  Habitable  Globe. 

The  material  elements  which  God  created 
came  together  into  a  habitable  earth.  At  first 
no  such  forms  of  organic  life  as  we  now  see 
could  exist  among  them — especially  as.  Geol- 
ogy being  witness,  they  were  all  mingled  in 
one  great  fiery  ocean  convulsed  with  such  ter- 
rible storms  as  are  now  never  seen.  But  grad- 
ually they  came  together  in  such  ways  that 
vegetables,  brute  animals,  and  at  last  m.en, 
could  not  only  live  on  the  earth,  but  flourish. 
Especially,  large  and  striking  provision  slowly 
gathered  for  man. 

He  would  need  air,  water,  dry  land ;  and 
somehow  these  separated  out  of  the  original 
chaos  of  elements.  He  would  need  stores  of 
metals,  medicines,  marbles,  oils  and  many  other 
substances  for  his  trades  and  arts ;  somehow 
these  came  to  be  stored  away  in  the  bowels  of 


130  ECCE    TERRA. 

the  earth.  He  would  need  to  have  the  prim- 
itive rocks  broken  down  into  fertile  soils ;  and 
somehow  a  large  part  of  the  earth's  crust  was 
ground  into  atoms.  He  would  need  a  great 
variety  of  vegetable  products  for  food,  fuel, 
clothing,  building,  beauty  ;  somehow  the  ground 
came  into  that  state  that  it  could  take  on  robes 
of  grass  and  flowers  and  grains  and  fruits  and 
forests.  He  would  need  various  brutes  for 
food,  service,  knowledge ;  somehow  suitable 
conditions  for  them  appeared  in  the  air,  in 
the  waters,  on  the  dry  land. 

He  would  need  a  broken  surface  to  give 
wide  outlooks,  to  diversify  and  beautify  the 
landscape,  to  give  motion  and  purity  to  water 
and  air,  to  make  accessible  the  rich  mineral 
deposits ;  somehow  the  strata  were  broken  and 
tilted  and  lifted  into  hills  and  mountains,  from 
which  rivers  and  rivulets  innumerable  were 
running  their  fruitful  and  forceful  courses  to 
the  sea.  He  would  need  the  alternations  of 
day  and  night  to  meet  the  alternate  demands 
in  his  constitution  for  labor  and  rest,  as  well  as 
to  enlarge  his  outlook  on  the  creation  ;  some- 
how the  earth  took  to  movino-  on  an  axis.  He 
would  need  a  variety  of  seasons  to  give  a  grate- 
ful and  healthful  change  to  his  occupation  and 
experiences ;  somehow  the  earth  came  to  re- 
volve about  the  sun  at  a  suitable  distance  and 


ILLUSTRATION  BY   GREAT   EXAMPLES.        I3I 

Speed  and  with  an  axis  suitably  inclined  to  its 
plane  of  revolution.  He  would  need  certain 
bounds  for  the  winds,  rains,  snows,  heats, 
colds  ;  somehow  such  general  limitations  were 
found  checking  the  great  natural  forces  in  the 
interest  of  human  safety. 

In  short,  he  would  need  the  raw  materials 
out  of  which  to  make  the  highest  condition  of 
humanity  yet  seen,  with  all  its  comforts,  con- 
veniences and  powers ;  and,  somehow,  were 
stored  away,  as  if  for  him,  all  the  brute  forces, 
harness,  cars  and  tramways  by  which  to  bring 
in  the  nineteenth  century  with  its  trades,  com- 
merce, inventions  and  discoveries,  arts  and  sci- 
ences, educations,  temples,  cities,  wonders. 

Now,  here  is  a  series  of  historical  events  ex- 
tending over  vast  periods  of  time  and  making 
an  immense  procession  of  adaptations  and 
preparations  for  the  organic  races,  of  which 
we  have  instanced  only  a  few  broad  classes. 
The  only  two  explanations  that  would  be 
offered  at  the  present  day  are — (i)  the  theory 
of  natural  development,  which  makes  the  or- 
ganic races  the  natural  outcome  of  earlier  con- 
structions with  their  environments,  and  so  in 
harmony  with  them  ;  and  (2)  the  theory  of  a 
direct  divine  purpose  and  action  for  securing 
these  preparations. 

I  have  endeavored   to  show  elsewhere  that 


132  ECCE    TERRA. 

matter  in  an  elementary  state  is  not  able,  of 
itself,  in  process  of  time  however  long,  to  come 
together  into  all  that  wide  variety  of  complex 
substances  and  arrangements  actually  found  in 
habitable  globes.  Otherwise,  the  actual  heavens 
and  earth  could  not  properly  be  appealed  to  in 
proof  of  God — as  is  done  in  the  Scriptures  and 
as  has  been  done  by  natural  religion  from  time 
immemorial — because  in  that  case  we  have  al- 
ready a  sufficient  explanation  of  them  in  exist- 
ing material  causes  which  may  be  eternal. 

Besides,  historical  Genesis  shows  us  the  Spirit 
of  God  acting  amid  the  primitive  chaos  of  ele- 
ments and  bringing  them  into  order  and  prep- 
aration for  organic  life  on  this  earth.  A  part 
of  this  preparation  may  have  been  sudden  ;  a 
part  of  it  we  know  from  geology  to  have  been 
very  gradual.  But,  whether  sudden  or  gradual, 
something  more  than  the  forces  and  laws  of 
matter  was  concerned  in  producing  the  won- 
derful constructions  of  the  material  theatre  we 
occupy.  The  supernatural  was  active.  "  The 
worlds  were  framed  by  the  word  of  God ;"  he 
''built  all  things."  This  is  the  only  scriptural 
or  sufficient  philosophy  of  the  architectural 
heavens  and  earth. 

Supposing  that  God  intended  to  stock  the 
earth  with  organic  races,  he  would  provide  for 
them,  as  far  as  possible,  a  suitable  environment. 


ILL  US TRA  TION  B  V  GREA  T  EXA MPLES.        1 3  3 

This  is  only  after  the  manner  of  every  wise 
builder.  Who  does  not  aim  to  have  the  sur- 
roundings of  the  house  he  is  about  to  build  in 
harmony  with  it  ? 

Notice  yonder  man,  whom  I  happen  to  know. 
He  has  large  resources,  has  decided  on  the 
plan  and  site  of  his  mansion,  and,  while  the 
materials  and  agents  are  being  gathered,  is 
busied  in  dealing  with  the  grounds.  He  grades 
them.  He  drains  them.  He  draws  out  rocks 
and  gathers  off  surface-stones.  He  sets  out 
trees  and  vines.  He  makes  a  garden  here,  a 
well  there,  a  road  yonder.  He  provides  for 
prospects,  for  health,  for  convenience,  for 
beauty.  He  is  a  landscape-gardener — all  with 
reference  to  the  structure  that  is  in  due  time 
to  arise — so  that  everything  about  it  may  make 
with  it  a  harmonious  whole.  And,  from  what  I 
know  of  the  man's  taste  and  judgment  and  re- 
sources of  every  kind,  I  am  sure  that,  when  his 
great  mansion  is  finished  and  stands  in  its  place 
amid  the  circumstances  provided  for  it,  the 
whole  will  seem  one  delighfully  self-congruous 
picture — a  chime  of  bells,  the  different  parts  of 
the  same  tune,  the  petals  of  the  same  flower, 
the  complementary  colors  of  the  same  white 
li^ht — even  such  a  unit  of  construction  that, 
one  part  being  given,  every  other  can  be  in- 
ferred from  it. 


134  E€CE    TERRA. 

"Thus  salth  the  Lord  that  created  the  heav- 
ens, God  himself  that  formed  the  earth  and 
made  it — he  hath  estabhshed  it,  he  created  it 
not  in  vain,  he  formed  it  to  be  inhabited." 
There  is  but  One  who  can  ask,  "Where  wast 
thou  when  I  laid  the  foundation  of  the  earth?" 
but  One  to  whom  we  can  say,  "As  for  the  world 
and  the  fullness  thereof,  thou  hast  founded 
them." 

Are  not  these  inanimate  constructions  by 
which  the  earth  is  made  habitable  such  as  to 
tax  heavily  our  powers  of  astonishment?  The 
atoms  have  come  together  into  a  palace. 

If  one  could  journey  outward  from  the  cen- 
tre of  the  earth,  what  a  long  train  of  marvels 
he  would  see  ^  The  whole  core  one  huge  con- 
flagration, tossing  in  inconceivable  heat  and 
flame — flashing,  billowing,  roaring,  as  never 
did  surface- fires;  so  hot  that  in  it  all  sub- 
stances, even  the  most  refractory  in  human 
crucible,  exist  only  as  gases  or  as  incandes- 
cent gases  solidified ;  mysteriously  burning  on 
from  age  to  age  with  no  supplies  of  fuel  from 
without;  a  perpetual,  self-feeding  furnace  that 
helps  warm  the  surface  of  the  earth,  but  is  kept 
from  burning  it  by  the  interposed  rocky  crust 
through  which  it  finds  occasional  vent  and  voice 
in  boiling  springs,  volcanoes  and  earthquakes. 
Moving   upward,   we    pass    through    what   are 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.         1 35 

really  successive  chapters  of  a  stone  book  in 
which  the  eye  of  science  reads  the  history  of 
untold  ages  of  change  and  preparation — pass- 
ing gradually  from  a  universal  ocean  of  fire  to 
a  universal  ocean  of  water;  and  from  this  to 
islands  and  continents  long  since  buried,  and 
where  reigned  with  alternate  sway  profound 
quiet  and  awful  convulsion,  torrid  and  glacial 
climates,  and  where  slowly  gathered  (or  rapid- 
ly) the  wonders  of  crystallization  ;  vast  stores 
of  the  precious  and  useful  metals ;  rainbow- 
gems  fit  for  kings  ;  beds  of  coal  and  salt  and 
marl  and  medicine  and  marble  ;  caverns  where 
our  torches  beam  on  the  weird  architectures  of 
subterranean  temples;  a  system  of  underground 
streams  and  rivers  as  vast  and  useful  as  that 
above  ground,  so  that  if  we  sink  a  shaft  almost 
anywhere  we  come,  sooner  or  later,  to  abun- 
dant water.  At  last  we  come  out  on  the  sur- 
face to  see  mountains  whose  tops  we  cannot 
see,  ranges  of  them  that  stretch  across  conti- 
nents ;  great  lakes  and  seas  gilded  with  sun- 
light and  silvered  with  moonlight ;  Amazons 
that  sweep  majestically  thousands  of  miles  to 
oceans  still  more  majestic,  and  whose  sublime 
bass  fills  the  earth ;  Niagaras  of  rapids  and 
cataracts, — all  buried  profoundly  in  a  universal 
ocean  of  air  in  whose  pellucid  depths  swim  ^ 
architectural  clouds  and  snow- crystals  and  gra- 


136  ECCE    TERRA. 

cious  rains  and  the  pomp  of  sunsets,  rainbows 
and  auroras,  and  where  rush  the  storms,  flash 
the  Hghtnings  and  volley  the  thunders, — all 
varied  by  the  shifting  glories  of  day  and  night 
and  of  the  revolving  seasons.  All  through  our 
journey  we  have  fallen  in  with  dynamites  of 
force,  either  chained  in  rocky  cells  (or,  still 
more  securely,  in  some  chemical  union)  or 
ranging  abroad  with  stormy  brow  and  earth- 
quaking tread,  but  yet  in  these  days  somehow 
kept  within  such  bounds  as  the  general  safety 
of  a  habitable  world  requires,  so  that  colds  and 
heats  and  rains  and  winds  and  liehtnines  are 
all  under  bonds  not  to  pass  certain  limits  of 
violence.  All  through  our  journey,  though  it 
led  under  the  Arctic  Circle,  we  have  only  to 
smite  the  coldest  stone,  the  frostiest  air,  or  the 
iceberg  itself,  to  find  that  magazines  of  heat 
are  mysteriously  stored  away  in  the  depths  of 
all  things — enough,  if  brought  out,  to  wrap 
the  world  in  flames.  What  a  wonderful  variety 
of  composite  substances  we  have  encountered, 
from  that  grand  melange  of  glowing  gases  in 
the  great  central  crucible,  with  their  vociferous 
unions  and  disunions,  up  through  the  dense 
subterranean  storehouses  of  the  mineral  world 
to  and  around  and  above  the  globed  surface; 
and  all  this  vast  variety  made  up  mainly  of 
only    some    sixteen     elements    variously    com- 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        1 37 

pounded  according  to  the  doctrine  of  definite 
proportion  !  How  many  results  by  how  few 
means  !  What  signal  uses  have  already  been 
found  in  them  !  how  many  new  ones  are  being 
found  almost  daily  ! — suggesting  untold  wealth 
of  use  still  lying  behind  in  the  shadow,  and ' 
clamorous  to  be  discovered. 

One  man  devotes  the  labor  of  a  lifetime  to 
the  science  of  crystals,  another  still  to  some 
other  small  fraction  of  the  furniture  of  this  ' 
habitable  world.  Does  either  lack  enough  to 
do  as  the  years  go  by?  He  hardly  makes  a 
beginning  on  the  wonders  of  his  field,  which  is 
merely  one  item  of  furniture  in  a  palace  twen- 
ty-four thousand  miles  in  circuit. 

3.  Lower  Organisms. 

By  these  I  mean  vegetables,  and  brute  ani- 
mals. 

Nothing  but  wonderful  folly  would  deny 
these  to  be  wonderful  things.  What  man 
can  make  the  like  ?  As  a  rule,  the  better  in- 
formed one  is  in  regard  to  them  the  more  won- 
der-smitten he  is.  Especially  if  he  has  studied 
through  the  lenses  of  a  first-class  microscope. 

For  the  intimate  structure  of  plants  and  ani- 
mals I  must  ask  you  to  look  at  easily-obtainable 
plates  which  picture  specimens  as  they  appear 
under  the  best  instruments.     They  show  only 


138  ECCE    TERRA. 

a  few  parts  of  objects  all  of  whose  parts  are 
almost  equally  curious  and  elaborate.  The 
mystery  of  a  single  leaf,  or  a  reticulated  spider's 

'  eye,  is  quite  beyond  the  probing  of  the  pro- 
foundest  philosopher.  Till  used  to  it  he  lifts 
up  both  hands  in  astonishment.  If  I  could 
condense  all  the  anatomical  details  of  recent 
botanists  and  zoologists  into  a  single  picture, 
speaking  with  all  the  colors  of  life  to  a  single 
glance  of  the  eye,  ah,  what  a  glory  of  structural 
workmanship  would  confound  you  ! 

Now,  work  out  a  problem  of  infinite  varia- 
tions on  these  specimen  structures,  yet  so  that 
they  shall  always  remain  beautifully  adapted  to 
their  place  in  nature.     Do  this  out  of  scarcely 

/  more  than  four  sorts  of  chemical  elements. 
Then  multiply  these  varieties  by  all  the  num- 
bers that  can  be  got  out  of  the  multiplication 
table  by  an  expert,  and  sow  these  broadcast, 
as  from  an  inexhaustible  granary,  through  the 
immensities  of  air  and  sea  and  land  till  they 
everywhere  almost  touch  each  other. 

"  Full  nature  swarms  with  life  ;  one  wondrous  mass 
Of  animals,  or  atoms  organized, 
Waiting  the  vital  breath  when  parent  Heaven 
Shall  bid  his  Spirit  blow.     The  hoary  fen. 
In  putrid  streams,  emits  the  living  cloud 
Of  pestilence.     Through  subterranean  cells, 
Where  searching  sunbeams  scarce  can  find  a  way, 
Earth  animated  heaves  ;  and  where  the  pool 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        1 39 

Stands  mantled  o'er  with  green,  invisible, 
Amid  the  floating  verdure,  millions  stray. 
Each  liquid  too,  whether  it  pierces,  soothes, 
Inflames,  refreshes  or  exalts  the  taste. 
With  various  forms  abounds.     Nor  is  the  stream 
Of  purest  crystal,  nor  the  lucid  air. 
Though  one  transparent  vacancy  it  seems. 
Void  of  their  unseen  people." 

Paint  and  proportion  multitudes  of  these  till 
they  glow  with  beauty — from  the  green  blade 
or  leaf  to  the  Victoria  Regia,  from  the  sculp- 
tured iridescent  shell-fish  to  the  bird  of  para- 
dise— and  so  dispose  numbers  of  them  as  to  glo- 
rify such  landscapes  as  tourists  go  half  round 
the  world  to  see.  Swell  some  of  them  till  they 
rise  more  than  three  hundred  feet  into  the  air, 
as  the  giant  trees  of  the  Yosemite,  or  as  the 
leviathans  of  the  deep  make  it  to  "  boil  like  a 
pot ;"  dwarf  countless  others,  yet  without  sub- 
tracting a  single  vessel  or  pore  or  function,  till 
they  pass  out  of  sight  of  the  sharpest-sighted 
instrument  that  optician  ever  made ;  fit  the 
parts  of  each  so  mathematically  to  each  other 
that  when  one  finds  a  leaf  or  bone,  however 
small,  he  can  infer  the  whole  plant  or  animal 
from  it.  Then  fit  them  all,  from  the  greatest 
to  the  least,  with  that  wonder  which,  in  our 
ignorance,  we  call  life.  Nay,  at  least  in  some 
cases,  give  this  life  in  advance  of  organization. 
And,   perhaps   greatest  wonder   of  all,   let  all 


i40  ECCE    TERRA. 

these  wonders  come  from  little  seeds  or  eggs 
sometimes  microscopic,  sometimes  thousands 
of  years  old,  always  plain  and  unorganized  to 
all  appearance  under  the  best  glasses.  Does 
each  of  these  unpromising  eggs  or  seeds  con- 
tain in  itself  an  infinitesmal  organic  unit  or 
mould  as  perfect  and  peculiar  as  that  which 
comes  from  it,  though  no  science  nor  art  of 
ours  can  find  it? 

But  the  animal  tribes  have  some  marvels  of 
a  hieher  order  than  those  common  to  them  and 
plants.  Their  life  is  of  a  nobler  and  more  mys- 
terious sort.  They  have  the  rudiments  of  a 
spiritual  nature.  They  furnish  wonderful  ex- 
amples of  speed,  strengdi,  courage  and  acute- 
ness  of  senses.  The  common  butterfly  has 
I  thirty-five  thousand  eyes  in  one.  Some  birds 
are  the  sweetest  of  songsters.  Worms  change 
to  butterflies,  and  fishes  to  frogs.  Some  ani- 
mals are  headless,  and  others  have,  or  can 
have,  many  heads.  Some  can  be  turned  inside 
out  and  then  thrive  just  as  well  as  ever — can 
indeed  be  cut  into  bits  which  shortly  become 
as  many  complete  animals  ;  or  these  bits  may 
be  pieced  together  in  any  way  and  grow  into  a 
living  monster  of  any  form  you  please.  Some 
can  thrive  in  enormous  heats,  others  in  enor- 
mous colds,  others  still  under  almost  infinite 
tons    of    pressure    and    in    eternal    night,    stiU 


IL  L  US  TRA  TION  BY   G  RE  A  T  EX  A  MPL  ES.        1 4 1 

Others  with  enormously  long  deprivation  of 
food.  Litde  polypi,  working  as  if  possessed 
by  one  will,  build  up  great  coral  reefs  and 
islands  out  of  the  ocean  depths,  and  great  min- 
eral beds  are  made  up  of  the  stony  remains 
of  infusoria  five  hundred  millions  of  which  are 
sometimes  found  in  a  single  drop  of  water,  and 
forty-one  thousand  millions  of  whose  skeletons 
only  fill  a  cubic  inch, — every  one  of  which  had 
mouth,  teeth,  muscles,  glands,  eyes  and  all  the 
oreans  of  sense  after  the  manner  of  the  larger 
animals. 

In  all  this  immense  population  of  fauna  and 
flora  what  a  world  of  uses — for  decoration,  food, 
labor,  pleasure,  education  ;  for  shade,  medicine, 
fuel,  furniture,  instruments  and  structures  of  all 
sorts  !  Wonderful  servants  of  that  wonderfully 
furnished  palace  which  we  call  the  earth  ! 

If  mere  atoms  with  their  forces  and  laws  can- 
not account  for  habitable  globes,  and  especially 
for  such  systems  of  them  as  science  has  discov- 
ered, much  less  can  they  account  for  endless 
species  of  plants  and  animals,  all  of  which  are 
geologically  known  to  have  had  a  beginning, 
and  which,  all  things  considered,  are  at  least  as 
wonderful  as  any  astronomic  system.  In  the 
Scriptures  these  earthly  organisms  are  freely 
appealed  to  as  conclusive  proof  of  the  divine 
wisdom   and   power;   which  they  certainly  are 


142  ECCE    TERRA. 

not  If  existlncr  natural  forces  and  laws  are 
enough  for  their  production.  Are  we  pre- 
pared to  abandon  the  Newtonian  method  of 
philosophizing? 

Further,  the  first  chapter  in  Genesis,  naturally 
Interpreted,  shows  us  God  as  personally  Intro- 
ducine  the  various  flora  and  fauna  of  our  world 
to  their  home.  Has  science  discovered  any- 
thing opposed  to  this  view?  On  the  contrary, 
It  Is  the  most  reasonable  and  philosophical  ex- 
planation of  the  origin  of  species;  because  It  Is 
the  simplest,  the  clearest,  the  safest,  the  most 
salutary,  as  well  as  the  most  consonant  with  the 
natural  thought  and  traditions  of  mankind. 

So  every  new  species  that  appeared  along 
the  geologic  ages  was  a  divine  construction. 
Especially  did  every  animal  form  that  Included 
a  choosing,  feeling  and  Intelligent  nature,  of 
whatever  grade,  also  Include  a  divine  creation, 
or  at  least  organization.  As  the  number  of 
diflerent  organic  species  known  to  us  Is  prac- 
tically Infinite,  there  has  been  In  the  long  course 
of  the  past  a  practically  Infinite  number  of  con- 
summate divine  actions.  They  make  the  pres- 
ent, as  well  as  the  past,  a  glorious  overflowing 
granary  of  stars.  Just  as  stars,  millions  of  them 
— wonders  all  of  them — come  out  one  after  an- 
other quietly  on  the  sky  and  pierce  the  gloom 
in  every  direction  with  their  shining  arrows,  so 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        I43 

all  through  the  dim  geologic  evening  of  the 
world  were  ever  appearing  new  species  which 
no  preceding  species  could  account  for,  any 
more  than  the  earlier  stars  of  the  evening  can 
account  for  those  which  appear  later ;  and  the 
only  sufficient  philosophy  of  which  is :  "  Hath 
not  My  hand  made  all  these  things?" 

Of  course  the  same  divine  sovereignty  that 
began  species  fixed  the  times  and  places  in 
which  they  appeared. 

4.  Man. 
The  simplest  vegetable  is  a  wonder.  Placed 
under  the  microscope,  and  studied  as  far  toward 
the  first  elements  of  structure  as  our  best  sci- 
ence can  carry  us,  it  seems  full  of  a  mysterious 
wisdom.  From  this,  upward  to  the  most  com- 
plex and  colossal  forms  of  our  flora,  the  whole 
immense  interval  is  deluged  with  an  endless  va- 
riety of  organisms.  We  are  astounded;  we  are 
even  at  times  overwhelmed  and  discouraged. 
The  lifetime  of  generations  and  the  utmost  re- 
sources of  our  art  only  suffice  just  to  place  us 
within  the  doors  of  that  great  forest  sanctuary 
whose  every  leaf  worships  God  as  its  Author. 
"For  the  Lord  God  made  the  earth  and  the 
heavens,  and  every  plant  of  the  field  before  it 
was  in  the  earth,  and  every  herb  of  the  field 
before  it  grew." 


144  A  CCA-    TERRA. 

But   these   are  only  parts  of  his   ways — the 

lower   parts.     Our  observation    still    keeps  on 

its  ascending  way  till  it  comes  out  on  the  plane 

of  animal  life.     Where  is  the  horizon  ?    Where 

is  vacancy?    The  dust  beneath  our  feet  is  fairly 

alive  with  miracle-beincrs.     The  air  swarms  and 

<_> 

sings  with  every  imaginable  sort  of  winged 
creatures.  The  water,  from  the  tiniest  stream- 
let and  pool  to  the  mightiest  ocean,  is  as  pop- 
ulous with  various  finny  tribes,  from  motes  to 
monsters.  Ranging  over  the  land,  on  moun- 
tains and  in  valleys,  in  meadows  and  forests,  in 
tropics  and  arctics,  are  flocks  and  herds  in  num- 
bers and  varieties  that  defy  statement;  from  the 
hugest  Deinothere  that  shakes  the  plain  with 
his  tramp  and  roar  to  the  humblest  spider  that 
creeps  and  spins.  These  stand  as  much  above 
vegetable  organisms,  wonderful  as  they  are,  as 
these  latter  do  above  the  highest  mineral  com- 
pounds; and  in  their  innumerable  hosts  they 
represent  to  us  those  primitive  species  which 
long  ago,  and  (as  the  earth-records  show)  at  suc- 
cessive periods,  made  their  appearance  on  the 
earth — not  by  a  fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms 
or  creation  by  law,  but  by  the  might  and  wis- 
dom of  Him  "  without  whom  was  not  anything 
made  that  was  made."  "And  out  of  the  ground 
the  Lord  God  formed  every  beast  of  the  field 
and  every  fowl  of  the  air." 


ILLUSTRATION  BY   GREAT  EXAMPLES.        1 45 

Then  came  a  higher  epiphany.  After  the  ad- 
vent of  all  the  other  organic  types  appeared 
man.  On  some  bright  clay,  millenniums  back, 
the  brute  world  and  the  orazinir  stars  became 
aware  of  a  new  wonder  amone  them  that  out- 
shone  them  all.  An  upright  form,  a  majestic 
brow,  eyes  that  gleamed  with  thought  and  em- 
pire, lips  that  could  speak,  as  well  as  ears  that 
could  hear,  the  words  of  God, — behold,  at  last, 
the  king  of  the  world  ! 

Let  us  set  this  advent  apart  from  that  of  the 
lower  organisms,  for  the  same  reason  that  the 
Bible  seems  to  do  it — viz.  its  special  dignity  and 
consequence.  It  is  plain  that  there  is  "  a  great 
gulf  fixed  "  between  man  and  every  other  ter- 
restrial species — not  so  much  as  to  his  wonders 
of  bodily  organization,  for  it  is  by  no  means 
certain  that  in  this  respect  he  has  much  the 
advantage  of  many  other  animals  that  might  be 
named,  but  as  to  his  spiritual  and  moral  pow- 
ers. In  these  he  towers  almost  infinitely  above 
all  other  terrestrial  beings.  He  is  the  image 
of  God. 

Were  I  called  on  to  picture  the  present  state 
of  human  nature,  I  would  point  to  the  ruins  of 
a  city  that  once  shone  with  the  glories  of  em- 
pire. Here  are  dismanded  walls.  Here  is  the 
rubbish  of  dwellings.  Here  rank  weeds  wave 
over     highways    and     crumbling    foundations. 

10 


146  ECCE    TERRA. 

Here  creeps  the  reptile,  roams  the  wild  beast 
and  prowls  the  outlaw. 

But  it  is  not  all  a  desolation.  As  the  traveler 
threads  the  deserted  streets  he  is  awed  by  the 
grand  remains  which  gaze  mournfully  on  him 
from  every  hand.  In  these  broken  marbles  he 
sees  traces  of  vast  and  beautiful  structures 
through  which  moved  the  great,  the  splendid 
and  the  lovely.  Here  rises  a  column  as  erect 
and  fair  as  when  it  helped  to  sustain  a  palace. 
There  stands  a  palace  as  entire  almost  as  when 
princes  dwelt  in  it.  Yonder  appears  a  temple 
so  massive,  so  stately,  so  noble  of  material  and 
workmanship,  that  the  eye  never  wearies  with 
gazing  on  it.  And,  scattered  all  about,  are 
relics  of  other  days,  profuse  and  magnificent 
enough  to  awaken  visions  of  a  metropolis  whose 
proud  name  was  Palmyra  or  Thebes  or  Rome. 

No  doubt  the  human  nature  we  see  is  human 
nature  in  ruins.  Our  moral  being  is  prostrate. 
Its  fall  has  carried  with  it,  to  a  very  consider- 
able extent,  the  beauty  and  power  of  our  intel- 
lectual, and  even  of  our  physical,  being.  We  do 
not  know  as  we  should  know  if  we  had  never 
sinned.  We  are  not  as  fair,  strong  and  health- 
ful as  we  should  be  if  the  curse  of  the  soul  had 
not  passed  over  to  the  body.  Yes,  it  is  a  sad 
ruin  which  sins  have  made  of  us — sins,  those 
worst  of  Goths  and  Vandals — and  yet,  like  old 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        1 4/ 

Rome  or  Egyptian  Thebes,  it  is  a  ruin  of  most 
majestic  aspect.  Enough  remains  to  make  hu- 
manity one  of  the  grandest  things  ^beneath  the 
heavens.  Columns  wondrously  chiseled  still 
stand  upright  and  shining  within  us.  Halls  fit 
for  sovereigns  still  stretch  within  us  their  lono-- 
drawn  magnificence.  Within  us  may  be  found 
shrines  needing  only  a  true  fire  on  their  altars 
and  the  sanctity  of  a  true  worship  to  make 
them  outshine  all  outward  temples.  No  old- 
time  city,  in  the  gloomy  pomp  of  its  partial 
desolation,  so  awes  the  mind  accustomed  to 
think  deeply  as  do  the  great  remains  of  its 
own  shattered  powers.  Let  others  wonder  as 
they  may  that  the  Scriptures  make  men  the  ob- 
jects of  such  high  interests  and  strivings  on 
the  part  of  the  Highest,  it  is  no  wonder  to  me. 
I  see  enough  in  men,  ruined  as  they  are,  to 
make  it  worth  the  while  of  Him  who  inhabits 
eternity  and  calls  the  universe  of  astronomy 
his  own,  to  bend  on  them  the  whole  of  the  care, 
the  longing  and  the  effort  ascribed  to  him  by 
the  Christian  religion. 

Go  with  me  to  yonder  library.  What  book 
is  this?  It  is  the  work  of  a  bard  w^ho  swayed  the 
pictured  wings  of  angels,  whose  voice  has  tuned 
every  Christian  language,  at  the  sound  of  whose 
mighty  harp  generation  after  generation  have 
hushed  their  hearts   to  listen. — What  book  is 


148  ECCE    TERRA. 

this  ?  It  is  the  work  of  a  philosopher  by  whose 
name  knowledge  is  wont  to  swear ;  whom  sci- 
ence counts* her  master  of  magicians  ;  the  coro- 
net of  whose  fame  is  graced  by  so  many  gems  of 
discovery  as  all  the  ages  before  him  had  failed 
to  gather;  who  created  the  most  profound  of 
the  sciences  in  the  effort  to  improve  another 
science  ;  who  taught  us  to  climb  to  the  height 
of  the  stars  and  weigh  them  as  in  balances, 
and  girdle  them  with  measuring-line,  and  make 
up  the  log  of  their  stupendous  voyages,  and 
tell  the  precise  arrangements  of  the  system  of 
worlds  to  which  we  belong  at  any  given  moment 
of  the  future  or  past. — What  book  is  this?  It 
is  the  life  of  one  who  rose  from  obscurity  to 
a  throne  and  from  a  throne  to  a  kingdom  of 
thrones,  but  whose  place  was  never  greater 
than  his  faculty ;  who  never  was  more  am- 
bitious and  selfish,  never  more  famous  and 
powerful,  than  his  genius  was  sublime  ;  whose 
sovereign  glance  went  promptly  down  into  the 
depths  of  human  nature ;  w4io  grasped  almost 
as  by  intuition  the  great  principles  of  govern- 
ment and  warfare,  and  strode  through  the  cabi- 
nets and  battlefields  of  Europe  with  a  science 
and  ease  that  never  found  their  equal ;  who 
fought  and  legislated,  diplomatized  and  finan- 
ciered, with  the  same  triumphant  ability ;  and 
who,  when  ke  fell,  fell  not  so  much  by  the  skill 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.         1 49 

and  powers  of  man  as  by  the  icy  rigors  of  the 
Almighty. 

And  now  let  us  turn  from  these  alcoves,  in 
which  the  lips  and  deeds  of  mighty  men  are 
still  eloquent,  and  place  ourselves  in  the  cathe- 
dral of  Rome  as  it  now  is,  or  in  the  Senate- 
house  and  Forum  of  Rome  as  it  was  in  the 
days  of  M.  Tullius  Cicero,  or  on  the  Pnyx  of 
Athens  in  the  days  of  Demosthenes,  or  in  some 
national  Patent  Office  where  all  the  great  in- 
ventions of  the  age  are  brought  together.  The 
church  of  St.  Peter!  What  multitudes  have 
looked,  as  we  are  now  doing,  along  the  height 
and  outspread  of  these  proportions,  and,  like 
us,  felt  themselves  almost  overborne  in  the 
presence  of  the  speaking  masonry !  Ah,  the  ' 
blended  richness  of  painting,  sculpture  and 
architecture ;  of  the  artful  light,  the  exquisite 
carving,  the  graceful  arches,  the  massive 
strength,  the  fauldess  symmetry  and  the  vast 
spaces  of  this  wondrous  temple  which  human 
genius  planned  and  wrought !  Religion,  in  the 
majesty  of  her  heavenly  form,  seems  to  come 
and  lay  her  solemn  shadow  on  us,  and  silently  ' 
and  slowly  lift  her  finger  toward  the  eternal 
God. 

This  hall  of  the  Conscript  Fathers !  Now  the 
patricians  must  indeed  take  care  that  the  re- 
public   receive    no    detriment.      The   consul   is 


150  ECCE    TERRA. 

already  doing-  it.  He  is  exposing  to  them  the 
conspiracy  of  CatiHne  as  never  was  conspiracy 
exposed  before.  Listen  !  See  with  what  high 
art  he  introduces  his  dangerous  subject.  See 
how,  as  he  proceeds,  he  is  fastening  to  himself 
as  with  hooks  of  steel  the  attention  and  sym- 
pathies of  his  hearers  !  Now  he  is  beginning 
to  thrill  them  by  the  electricity  of  his  kindling 
argument.  The  stream  of  his  power  widens 
and  deepens  and  grows  more  rapid  and  phos- 
phorescent every  moment.  See,  now,  how  it 
sparkles  and  flashes  beneath  the  lightnings  of 
his  wrathful  patriotism  and  fancy !  At  last, 
swollen  to  a  shining  river,  it  hurries  along  the 
whole  assembly  on  its  impetuous  bosom  as  if 
they  were  mere  bubbles  of  its  own  foaming 
waters.  See  how  they  hang  on  his  wonderful 
lips,  are  convinced  when  he  is  convinced,  glow 
when  he  glows,  scorn  when  he  scorns,  rage 
when  he  rages !  How  evidently  they  have  be- 
come in  his  hand  a  keen  two-edged  sword 
driving  with  thirsty  point  at  the  infamous  con- 
spirators !  Catiline  trembles.  He  attempts  to 
reply.  Murmurs  rise  on  every  hand;  they  swell 
gradually  into  a  tempest;  and  grave  senators, 
despite  dignity  and  usage,  spring  to  their  feet 
and  ring  in  his  ears  the  cry  oi  Incendiary !  Par- 
ricide! He  rushes  in  terror  from  the  Senate- 
house  and  the  city. 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES,        15I 

These  are  but  ancient  specimens  of  powers 
which  are  being  freely  reproduced  in  our  own 
day.  We  have  orators  as  eloquent,  poets  as 
soaring,  architects  as  gifted,  as  any  in  the  past. 
Cwcumspice^  as  says  the  monument  of  Sir  Chris- 
topher Wren.  Antiquity  gives  a  certain  beauty 
and  grandeur  of  its  own  to  persons,  structures, 
achievements.  Apotheosis  is  not  to  be  had  till 
long  after  death  and  burial.  That  old  temple 
is  really  no  grander  in  its  design  and  execution 
than  this  which  was  finished  yesterday ;  only  it 
looks  so,  as  seen  through  the  haze  of  a  thousand  ' 
years.  That  scientist,  long  since  laid  away  in 
Westminster  Abbey,  did  not  command  in  his 
own  day  such  reverence  as  he  does  now:  and, 
it  may  be,  was  not  a  whit  abler  than  many  a 
present  scientist  who  lacks  his  splendid  oppor- 
tunity, or  who  has  chanced  to  turn  his  studies 
on  less  fruitful  fields,  or  has  focused  his  genius 
on  those  great  inventions  or  institutions  or 
business  operations  which  distinguish  our  time. 
How  marvelous  some  inventions  are !  The 
contemporaries  of  Homer,  or  Demosthenes,  or 
Cicero,  or  Angelo,  or  even  Newton,  would  have 
wondered  far  more  at  some  of  our  -graphs  and 
-phones  and  factories  than  they  ever  did  at  any 
of  the  achievements  which  they  actually  saw. 
I  have  no  wish  to  rehearse  the  much-rehearsed 
story  of  the  exploits  of  inventive  genius  in  our 


152  ECCE    TERRA. 

times.  I  simply  echo  what  everybody  is  saying: 
//  is  wonderful ! 

Such  is  the  human  intellect  in  its  broken 
state.  Not  that  we  are  all  the  peers  of  such 
great  men  as  I  have  named,  in  the  present 
degree  of  our  faculty;  but  we  may  well  lay  claim 
to  natures  of  the  same  general  order,  and  na- 
tures which,  in  a  few  years,  will  have  reached 
the  same  grand  intellectual  expansion. 

Now  turn  from  the  intellect  of  man  to  his 
will.  We  here  find  a  greatness  fully  equal  to 
any  found  in  his  intellectual  nature.  The  ener- 
gy and  persistence  of  purpose  which  some  men 
show  are  about  as  impressive  as  anything  to  be 
seen  in  the  world.  Glance  at  the  career  of  almost 
any  man  who  from  obscurity  has  raised  himself 
to  a  great  place  and  name.  That  scholar  whose 
name  is  on  every  lip  and  whose  works  will  make 
him  live  immortally  when  dead, — how  happens 
he  to  stand  on  the  pinnacle  where  we  see  him? 
Is  it  due  to  some  stroke  of  sfood  luck,  or  to  some 
sudden  uplift  of  incomparable  natural  talent? 
Nothing  of  the  sort.  In  early  life  he  set  his 
mark  before  him,  kept  it  there  despite  great 
temptations  to  discouragement,  pressed  toward 
it  when  weary  and  sick  and  neglected — pressed 
toward  it  when  men  and  even  divine  Providence 
seemed  to  sav,  Thou  sJialt  not.  It  was  his  un- 
conquerable    resolution,   maintained  with    stern 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        I  53 

and  splendid  erectness,  despite  gravities  and 
storms,  through  many  years  of  struggle,  which 
finally  carried  him  through  to  his  high  place. 

How  imposing  the  constancy  and  fire  of  de- 
termination with  which  men  of  business  some- 
times work  out  through  years  and  years  their 
plans  of  accumulation — imposing  in  spite  of 
the  manifest  infatuation  of  a  governing  purpose 
that  centres  altocrether  on  this  brief  life  !  And 
how  much  more  imposing  the  steady  inflexibil- 
ity with  which  the  good  man  sometimes  takes 
up  his  cross  and  does  the  work  of  unpopular 
reform,  sets  himself  against  corrupt  public  opin- 
ion, heroically  battles  all  his  life  long  through 
contempt  and  abuse,  or,  calmly  untwining  from 
his  neck  the  clinging  arms  of  dear  ones,  puts 
oceans  between  himself  and  them  and  wears 
life  away  in  missionary-work  among  savages 
beneath  the  Arctic  Circle  or  the  fiery  zones  of 
the  Equator,  and  at  last  lies  down  uncomplain- 
ingly to  die,  with  no  country  but  heaven  and  no' 
friend  but  God !  Fix  your  thought  on  the  glo- 
rious resolves  of  a  Paul ;  and,  indeed,  of  a  host 
of  martyrs  who  have  pressed  with  a  like  unwav- 
ering decision  along  their  thorny  and  bloody 
way  toward  the  mark  for  the  prize  of  their 
hiorh  callinor. 

Surely  this  human  will  has  still  left  in  it  some- 
thing too  sublime  to  be  easily  spoken.     Can  we 


154  ECCE    TERRA. 

look  at  such  examples  without  feeling  that 
something  of  divinity  still  lingers  among  men  ? 
True  it  is  that  the  will  does  not  display  itself  in 
these  imposing  forms  in  each  of  us;  but,  in  each, 
precisely  the  same  forms  lie  folded  up,  ready  to 
be  spread  abroad  like  banners  by  suitable  pains. 
How  glorious  are  even  the  ruins  of  the  human 
will! 

Also,  we  shall  find  on  examination  that  our 
emotional  nature,  much  as  sin  has  injured  it,  is 
still  full  of  great  things,  if  not  of  good  things. 
Here  we  may  find  desires  which  the  whole 
world  cannot  satisfy.  Throw  in  at  their  open 
I  mouths  planets,  suns,  starry  systems  of  natural 
good,  and  they  would  remain  open  for  more. 
Here  we  may  find  hope  quenchless  by  trouble. 
Here,  too,  we  may  find  a  fear  immense  as  any 
hope — a  fear  fearful  to  see  as  well  as  to  feel ; 
the  pale  and  haggard  fear  that  screams  in 
dreams,  tries  to  struggle  away  from  a  horrible 
death,  begs  to  escape  the  endless  perdition  of 
the  ungodly  ;  the  terrible  fear  that  sometimes 
rends  the  hearts  of  men  when  they  are  con- 
sciously dying  in  their  sins.  Do  we  not  know, 
too,  of  human  love  that  is  stronger  than  death, 
which  many  waters  cannot  quench  nor  floods 
drown  ?  Have  we  not  known  it  to  cling  to  its 
object  not  only  when  it  was  disgrace  and  ruin 
to  do  so,  but  when  abused  and  ruined  by  the 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        1 55 

very  object  to  which  it  clung?  And  within  our 
strange  heart,  also,  we  may  find  a  hatred  as 
huge  as  any  love— a  hatred  fearful  to  see  as 
well  as  to  feel,  one  that  would  gladly  pluck 
down  eternal  retributions  on  its  object.  "  Go 
to  hell,"  says  many  a  wretch ;  and  he  means  it. 
An  Italian  one  day  found  his  enemy  in  his 
power.  The  dagger  was  lifted :  "  I  will  spare 
your  life  if  you  will  abjure  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ."  The  wretch  abjured.  "  Now,"  ex- 
claimed the  triumphant  hater  as  he  drove  his 
weapon  home  to  the  heart,  '*  I  have  a  sweet 
revenge,  for  I  kill  both  body  and  soul."  With- 
in each  human  heart  what  wondrous  capacities 
for  happiness  and  misery !  We  have  a  thou- 
sand sources  of  either  where  the  brutes  have 
one :  in  this  world  we  may  "  rejoice  with  joy 
unspeakable  and  full  of  glory"  or  suffer  with 
unspeakable  distress  ;  in  the  next  world  no 
limits  can  be  set  to  the  heights  of  bliss  to  which 
we  shall  rise,  or  to  the  depths  of  anguish  to 
which  we  shall  descend. 

Surely  this  is  a  great  and  awful  nature  of 
ours,  though  it  be  in  ruins.  Though  we  do 
not  all  now  have  such  degrees  of  hope  and  fear, 
of  love  and  hatred,  of  joy  and  sorrow,  as  have 
been  instanced,  yet  their  elements  lie  folded 
up  within  us  all,  and  can,  like  the  furled  canvas 
of  the  ship  or  of  the  aeronaut,  be  expanded  by 


156  ECCE    TERRA. 

circumstances  into  great  billowy  clouds  and 
globes. 

There  are  powers  wrapped  up  in  man  of 
which  we  only  get  glimpses  on  extraordinary 
occasions.  For  example,  at  the  point  of  drown- 
ing men  sometimes  find  their  memories  sweep- 
ing back  over  their  entire  past  and  seemingly 
gathering  into  one  view  on  the  instant  all  the 
actions  of  their  lives.  It  is  the  judgment  day 
condensed  into  a  moment.  The  Book  of  Re- 
membrance, brought  down  to  date,  flashes  out 
to  them  its  every  entry.  The  somnambule  will 
rise  from  his  bed  and  solve  problems  which 
baffled  his  best  waking  hours — will,  with  closed 
eyes,  walk  safely  through  the  midnight  on  dizzy 
ridges  and  parapets  where  he  would  not  ven- 
ture in  the  waking  day.  He  has,  somehow,  a 
faculty  of  seeing  that  is  independent  of  bodily 
eyes.  Think  also  of  that  strange  world  of  facts, 
as  well  as  of  fictions,  glimpses  of  which  we  get 
in  Mesmerism  and  Spiritualism.  Whatever 
doubt,  and  even  denial,  belongs  to  many  of 
their  wonders,  it  hardly  can  be  reasonably 
doubted  that  they  hint  at  powers  in  the  hu- 
man soul  of  the  most  astonishing  sort. 

Notwithstanding  the  heavy  blow  which  sin 
has  given  to  the  human  soul,  it  has  left  it  a 
free  moral  nature.  The  power  of  self-govern- 
ment in   respect  to  right  and  wrong   still   re- 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        I  57 

mains.  No  matter  how  mighty  the  tempta- 
tions to  wrong,  we  can  trample  on  them  ;  and 
no  matter  how  mighty  the  motives  to  right- 
eousness, we  can  trample  on  them.  A  nature 
thus  self-governed  like  God's  own,  a  nature 
that  can  conquer  all  its  circumstances,  a  nature 
which,  however  it  does,  can  choose  and  do  the 
right  despite  the  utmost  efforts  of  earth  and 
hell,  is,  deny  it  who  can,  a  noble  structure.  It 
is  the  pillar  which  stands  as  lofty  and  beautiful 
among  the  broken  marbles  of  Persepolis  as 
when  it  helped  to  support  a  temple. 

One  of  the  most  strikinof  features  of  human- 
ity  is  its  power  of  indefinite  enlargement. 
There  are  no  limits  which  can  be  assigned  to 
the  extent  of  our  knowledge,  to  the  firmness 
and  force  of  our  purposes  or  to  the  range  and 
depth  of  our  emotions.  We  shall  never  have 
a  virtue  or  a  sin  which  cannot  be  greater,  at 
least  in  intensity.  Look  down  the  endless 
future  till  your  eye  aches  with  straining  after 
the  ultimate,  and  you  can  discover  nothing 
which  would  necessarily  prove  to  the  soul  the 
Pillars  of  Hercules.  Yes,  we  can  become 
wiser  and  stronger  and  better  for  ever  if  it 
be  so  that  God  has  granted  us  a  for  ever  to 
improve  in.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  if  God 
has  granted  us  a  for  ever,  we  can,  in  respect 
to    many    things,  ever   grow    worse.      Beyond 


158  ECCE    TERRA. 

any  assignable  limit  we  may  increase  our  de- 
pravity— deprave  our  reason  as  a  guide  to 
truth  ;  weaken  our  wills  for  every  useful  pur- 
suit and  the  ease  with  which  useful  emotions 
are  excited  and  maintained.  Such  is  the  glo- 
rious and  awful  nature  that  still  remains  to 
man.  We  are  forced  to  admire  and  tremble 
at  the  same  moment. 

That  everlasting  duration,  along  which  our 
natures  are  fitted  to  improve  or  decline,  act- 
ually belongs  to  them.  The  majesty  of  an  im- 
mortality is  upon  us.  Sin,  with  all  its  power 
to  curse  and  crush,  has  not  been  able  to  lay  in 
ruins  this  feature  of  our  likeness  to  God.  Nay, 
it  has  never  been  able  to  weaken  it  in  the  least. 
It  is  as  solid  and  rooted  and  august  as  that 
around  which  Paradise  first  bloomed.  It  is  a 
great  thing  to  look  at  as  belonging  to  another 
race  of  beings — this  perpetual  inaccessibility 
to  death.  But  it  is  a  still  more  impressive 
thing  to  look  at  as  a  feature  of  our  own  race 
of  sinful  and  responsible  beings.  The  immor- 
tality of  such  beings  has  a  solemn  grandeur 
about  it  which  that  of  the  holy  angels  cannot 
have.  The  latter  is  shone  upon  by  the  soft 
light  of  heaven  alone ;  the  other  has  in  addi- 
tion the  lurid  briorhtness  of  a  far  different 
world. 

The  image  of  God !     Yes,  the  image  of  God, 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        1 59 

every  man  of  them — notwithstanding  a  part  of 
mankind  look  scornfully  down  on  another  part, 
and  treat  them  as  if  they  belong  to  another 
race  and  are  quite  unworthy  of  notice.  How 
cruelly  such  conduct  defies  facts !  Are  not 
these  real  men  ?  Have  they  not  human  intel- 
lects, wills,  hearts  ?  Is  there  any  limit  to  their 
power  of  expansion  ?  Is  not  the  humblest  of 
them  immortal  ?  Has  not  every  man  of  them 
the  sublime  faculty  and  opportunity  of  a  glo- 
rious virtue  and  a  glorious  heaven  ?  What 
though  their  skins  are  dark,  or  their  hands 
horny,  or  their  clothes  poor,  or  their  gait  and 
port  somewhat  less  than  imperial  ?  They  are 
kings  for  all  that — kings  in  disguise,  if  you  will, 
but  still  kings.  Shall  we  say  that  the  Kohinoor 
was  not  a  diamond,  so  long  as  it  lay  uncut  and 
unset  and  unfound  amid  the  rubbish  of  its 
native  sands  ? 

Such  is  the  view  of  human  nature  given  in 
the  Scriptures.  They  show  God  doing  for  it 
with  a  care  and  zeal  that  never  flag ;  doing  for 
it  all  that  the  case  admits  of  being  done ;  doing 
for  it  that  exceeding  much  implied  in  the  incar- 
nation and  atonement  and  perpetual  mission  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  Does  God  move  heaven  and 
earth  for  nothinor  ?  Is  he  so  bent  on  savino- 
what  is  poorly  worth  saving?  Did  apostles 
undertake     such    toils     and    martyrdoms    for 


l6o  ECCE    TERRA. 

ephemeridse,  or  for  anything  short  of  the  im- 
age of  God  ?  Do  not  beheve  it.  It  were  pre- 
posterous to  beheve  it.  Such  conduct,  trans- 
lated into  speech,  says :  ''And  what  shah  a  man 
give  in  exchange  for  his  soul?" 

Whence  came  this  paragon  ?  If  mere  nature 
is  insufficient  to  originate  other  species,  it  is 
doubtless  insufficient  to  origrinate  the  human. 
After  such  a  full  account  of  the  origin  of 
Adam  and  Eve  by  direct  divine  action  as  the 
Bible  gives,  we  have  a  right  to  expect  that 
no  believer  in  that  book  will  talk  to  us  in 
favor  of  our  race  coming  in  a  natural  way 
from  apes,  and  at  last  from  minerals.  But, 
apart  from  exegesis  and  the  human  body, 
what  sufficient  account  can  be  found  in  mere 
nature  for  the  human  soul?  What  cannot 
explain  a  worm  can  hardly  explain  a  Newton. 
Unless  we  admit  that  the  soul  is  the  result  of 
organization  (which  would  at  once  land  us  in 
materialism,  with  all  its  defiance  of  Scripture 
and  natural  religion),  we  must  allow  it  to  have 
been  a  divine  creation,  and  that  the  prophet  was 
right  in  saying,  '•'  He  formed  the  spirit  of  man 
within  him." 

We  learn  from  the  Scriptures  that  man  is 
comparatively  a  recent  being ;  that  his  original 
seat  was  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Euphrates ; 
that  he  began  not  as  a  unit,  but  as  a  pair ;  not 


ILLUSTRATION  BY   GREAT  EXAMPLES.  l6l 

In  a  desert,  but  In  a  beautiful  garden  ;  not  as 
an  ape,  but  as  one  of  ourselves  ;  not  as  an  In- 
fant, but  in  full  maturity  of  bodily  and  mental 
powers ;  not  as  a  rude  savage,  but  at  what, 
though  simple,  was  really  a  high  stage  In  main 
things ;  not  as  a  frail  and  dying  being  like  our- 
selves, but  as  constitutionally  Immortal ;  not  as 
a  depraved  and  sinning  being,  but  as  altogether 
upright  and  righteous — though  In  a  state  of 
temptation  and  probation — and  having  free  and 
Intelligent  communication  with  higher  beings, 
and  especially  with  his  Maker.  Some  of  these 
particulars — for  example,  the  comparatively  re- 
cent origin  of  our  race.  Its  unity  and  the  general 
Asiatic  reo-Ion  where  It  occurred — are  known 
from  other  sources  as  well  as  from  the  Bible. 
From  the  nature  of  the  case  all  the  original 
traits  and  circumstances  of  the  first  man  were 
determined  by  the  sovereign  choice  and  agency 
of  his  Maker.  They  were  the  capital  with 
which  a  father  sets  up  his  son  In  business ;  the 
fire,  fuel,  graded  track  and  skilled  engineer  with 
which  a  locomotive  comes  forth  from  the  works 
to  run  Its  courses;  the  location,  lands,  buildings, 
apparatus,  professorships  with  which  the  found- 
er of  a  university  starts  It  off  on  its  educational 
career ;  the  rounded  shape,  sun-distance,  axis 
elevation,   inidal    velocity,    atmosphere,  waters, 

stores  of  useful  minerals  and  vegetables,  with 
11 


l63  ECCE    TERRA. 

which  the  Creator  of  this  habitable  planet 
launched  it  into  space ;  that  is  to  say,  the 
original  capital  and  endowments  with  which 
the  Father,  Builder,  Founder,  Creator  of  the 
race  chose,  in  the  exercise  of  his  sovereignty 
and  wisdom,  to  send  it  forth  on  its  mission. 

5.  Insignia  Common  to  Organic  Species. 

Organic  beings  are  divided  into  groups  by 
certain  sensible  differences.  The  broadest 
division  is  into  vegetables  and  animals.  Each 
of  these  two  great  classes  is  subdivided  into  a 
multitude  of  others,  in  each  of  which  the  num- 
bers are  alike  in  main  respects  and  incapable 
of  reproduction,  at  least  in  a  series,  with  the 
other  sub-classes.  So,  organic  nature  is  an 
archipelago.  It  appears  in  the  form  of  innu- 
merable organic  islands. 

Now,  these  islands,  which  we  call  species, 
have  had  from  the  beginning,  so  far  as  we 
know,  certain  traits  in  common  which  are  very 
striking — so  striking  that  they  deserve  to  be 
singled  out  and  distinctly  referred  to  that  per- 
sonal divine  action  which  must  have  chosen  and 
established  them ;  more  especially  as  they 
strongly  suggest,  if  they  do  not  prove,  a  form 
of  divine  action  other  than  that  concerned  in 
constructing  organic  beings.  They  seem  as  in- 
dependent of  structure  as  are  the  purple  robes 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        1 63 

and  other  insignia  worn  by  princes  of  the  bodies 
that  wear  them. 

All  species  of  such  beings  have  something 
that  we  call  Life.  We  give  this  name  to  that 
which  keeps  in  play  their  seemingly  self-active 
natures.  Just  what  this  something  is  has  been 
matter  of  long  and  fierce  discussion  ;  and  even 
to-day  scientists,  as  such,  are  as  much  in  the 
dark  as  ever,  though  we  have  what  is  called  a 
Science  of  Biology.  Is  it  something  within  the 
bodies  themselves — either  some  distinct  inspir- 
ing essence  inhering  in  them  or  some  peculiar 
correlation  of  the  atoms  and  forces  composing 
them,  or  is  it  some  force  from  without  empow- 
ering them  for  their  apparently  spontaneous 
functions  ?  In  the  first  case,  life  is  of  course 
due  to  Him  who  not  only  contrived  and  made 
the  first  parents  of  each  species,  but  without 
whom  our  science  cannot  explain  a  single  in- 
dividual of  their  successors ;  as  we  will  soon 
try  to  show. 

If,  under  the  pressure  of  such  facts  as  that 
the  power  of  spontaneous  movement  for  an 
end  is  not  in  harmony  with  our  fundamental 
ideas  of  matter,  that  it  seems  to  precede  all 
visible  organization,  and  that  it  ceases  while  yet 
organization  seems  quite  unimpaired — I  say,  if 
under  the  pressure  of  such  facts  we  elect  the 
latter  supposition  of  the  dilemma,  what  can  that 


164  ECCE    TERRA, 

vitalizing  force  from  without  be  save  the  divine? 
What  other  do  we  know  of  sufficient  for  the 
work?  What  other  force  than  His  of  whom 
the  Scriptures  choose  to  say,  *'  He  giveth  to  all 
life  and  breath;"  ''He  upholdeth  our  soul  in 
life;"  "In  him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our 
being"?  Is  it  so  very  unlikely  that  the  seem- 
ingly spontaneous  movements  of  bioplasm,  as 
it  throws  out  its  bridges  and  drives  hither  and 
thither  its  shutdes,  are  not  spontaneous  at  all, 
but  are  the  work  of  Him  of  whom  Job  in- 
quires, "Did  not  He  that  made  me  in  the 
womb  make  him,  and  did  not  One  fashion  us 
in  the  womb?" 

All  organic  species  have  also  growth.  No 
instrument  made  by  man  either  lives  or  grows ; 
every  organism  in  the  animal  and  vegetable 
worlds,  without  exception,  does  both.  Begin- 
ning with  a  very  small  structural  unit,  each  in- 
dividual takes  on  symmetrically  additions  to  all 
its  parts,  until  in  process  of  time  it  comes  to 
many  times  its  original  size.  This  universal 
fact  among  living  things  is  very  wonderful — 
about  as  much  so  as  life  itself — and  as  yet 
quite  unexplained  on  natural  principles.  We 
know  that  the  material  for  growth  is  found  in 
the  sap  or  blood,  and  that,  so^neJiow,  out  of  this 
is  filtered  to  the  various  parts  what  they  need 
for  their  upbuilding;   but  here  our  knowledge 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        1 65 

ends.  That  somehozu  is  a  dark  continent  which 
our  science  has  not  yet  landed  on,  nor  even  ap- 
proached. What  force  directs  that  sure  and 
silent  analysis  and  synthesis?  Who  is  the  prin- 
cipal in  that  consummate  laboratory? 

To  say  that  bioplasm,  or  living  matter  in  its 
earliest  observable  state,  moves  toward  and  ap- 
propriates lifeless  matter  and  endows  it  with 
its  own  properties,  is  far  enough  from  giving 
a  scientific  explanation  of  growth.  It  is  a  mys- 
tery from  the  side  of  science — as  much  of  a 
mystery  to-day  as  it  was  when  it  was  said  of 
the  seed,  "  It  springs  and  grows  up  he  knows 
not  how,"  or  when  at  an  earlier  time  it  was 
said,  ''As  thou  knowest  not  the  way  of  the 
spirit,  nor  how  the  bones  do  grow  in  the  womb 
of  her  that  is  with  child,  even  so  thou  knowest 
not  the  works  of  God  who  maketh  all."  Is  it 
done  by  mere  vitality  and  structure,  well  con- 
ditioned chemically  and  mechanically?  Growth 
ceases  when  as  yet  there  is  no  discoverable 
vital,  structural  or  circumstantial  change.  Be- 
sides, what  is  growth  but  a  kind  of  self-repro- 
duction— a  gradual  reproduction  on  a  larger 
scale  of  the  original  organic  unit?  In  a  few 
years  the  whole  original  matter  is  eliminated 
and  replaced  by  new  matter.  We  have  an  en- 
tirely new  and  better  structure,  but  on  the  plan 
of  the  old.     But  is  it  conceivable  that  an  in- 


1 66  ECCE    TERRA. 

strument   can    produce    its    own    equal,    much 
more  its  own  superior? 

Again,  each  species  has  its  own  fixed  range 
of  structural  variation.    Thus,  men  differ  among 
themselves   as   individuals   and   races,  as   John 
differs  from  James,  and  as  the  lowest  Hotten- 
tot from  the  highest  Caucasian.     Food,  climate, 
many  circumstances,  go  to  modify  our  inward 
structure  as  well  as  outward  appearance.     But 
the  range  of  this  variability  is  limited.     Go  a 
little  way  and  you  come  to  a  wall  as  high  as 
heaven.     So  with  every  species  of  animals  or 
vegetables.     Each    has    its    own    measure    of 
structural    flexibility    to    suit   varying    circum- 
stances :     if    the    human    range    is    called    one 
league,   then    that    of  another   species    is    two 
leagues  or  more,  but  never  runs  on  into  the 
infinite ;  very  far  from  it.     We  only  go  a  little 
way,  and,  lo,  a  7ie  plus  ultra  built  squarely  across 
the  path  which  neither  art  nor  force  can  remove. 
It  has  never  been  passed,  save  in  hypothesis. 
Observation  being  teacher,  the  different  species 
never  come  to  overlap  or  to  be  coterminous. 
They  even   remain  widely  apart ;   they  are   as 
far  apart  to  day  as  they  were  at  the  dawn  of 
history,  or  at  that  vastly  more  remote  time  when 
their  earliest  fossils  were  living.     Each  species, 
like  a  jealous  property-holder,  seems  to  say  to 
its  neighbor,  "No  trespassing  allowed."     They 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        1 6/ 

are  all  ships  of  a  fleet,  each  riding  at  anchor  on 
a  cable  of  definite  length  which  allows  some 
change  of  place  as  change  the  winds  and  tides, 
but  is  still  such  as  to  keep  it  at  a  safe  distance 
from  all  its  fellows.  They  are  all  like  the  stars, 
radiant  islands,  each  of  which  has  its  own  range 
of  minute  changes,  but  never  so  roves  as  to  col- 
lide with  any  other  star.  Such  is  the  famous 
doctrine  and  fact  of  the  stability  of  species. 

How  are  these  te7^77imi  of  structure  to  be 
explained  ?  What  keeps  each  species  rigidly 
within  its  own  bounds  ?  Is  there  anything  in 
its  make-up  to  prevent  its  varying  indefinitely? 
Nothing  that  is  visible.  May  I  not  say,  Nothing 
that  is  conceivable  ?  Such  variations  as  actu- 
ally occur  would,  if  continued,  carry  it  into  an- 
other species,  and  finally  through  all  the  species. 
And  yet  just  as  soon  as  the  variation  reaches  a 
certain  point  it  stops.  Of  course,  if  this  is  due 
to  some  invisible  physical  terminus,  some  West- 
inghouse  brake  hid  in  the  nature  of  the  species  "^ 
itself,  it  was  God,  the  contriver  and  maker  of 
that  nature,  who  placed  it  there.  But  it  looks 
as  though  there  were  no  such  limit  within  itself. 
What  is  there  in  mere  human  nature  to  prevent 
its  appearing  in  as  many  varieties  as  do  pig- 
eons ?  We  know  of  nothing  to  prevent  it  but 
the  current  choice  and  agency  of  God. 

There  are  other  termini  of  organic  species, 


1 68  ECCE    TERRA. 

each  of  which  is  quite  as  remarkable  as  that  just 
mentioned,  but  of  which  I  must  speak  collect- 
ively. Each  species  has  its  own  range  of  life- 
duration,  of  adult  stature  and  of  growth-period. 
One  never  lives  beyond  a  few  days  or  hours, 
another  never  beyond  a  few  months,  another 
never  beyond  a  few  years.  One  never  rises 
more  than  a  few  inches  above  ground,  another 
never  more  than  a  few  feet,  still  another  never 
more  than  a  few  hundred  feet.  One  always  gets 
its  growth  in  less  than  a  hundred  years,  another 
in  less  than  twenty,  still  another  in  less  than  a 
day.  The  members  of  the  same  species  vary 
among  themselves  somewhat  as  to  these  par- 
ticulars, but  there  is  always  a  John  o'  Groat's 
House  beyond  which  none  of  them  ever  go. 
At  present  men  attain  a  size  of  about  six  feet 
and  an  age  of  about  eighty  years,  and  their 
growth-period  is  about  twenty  years. 

And  so  every  species  of  animals  and  plants 
has  its  own  general  limit  of  size,  of  age  and  of 
growth-period.  Whence  came  these  differences? 
Of  course,  either  from  a  current  divine  Provi- 
dence steadily  holding  each  species  to  the  ter- 
mini thought  best  for  it,  or  from  some  peculiar- 
ity in  the  physical  make-up  and  conditions  of 
each  species.  But  the  differences  seem  quite 
independent  of  structure  and  environment.  No 
structural  bounds  are  visible  even  to  keenest- 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        1 69 

eyed  science.  What  reason  in  nature  why  a 
peach  tree  cannot  live  as  long  and  grow  as  ^ 
large  as  an  oak ;  why  a  dog  cannot  live  as 
long  and  grow  as  large  as  a  man  ;  why  a  man 
cannot  live  out  the  three  centuries  of  an  oak  as 
well  as  a  litde  more  than  threescore  years,  stop 
growing  at  twelve  feet  of  height  as  well  as  at 
six,  continue  growing  for  forty  years  as  well  as 
for  twenty?  Certainly,  the  actual  terms  seem 
purely  arbitrary.  They  seem  to  exist  by  no 
necessity  of  nature  or  construction,  but  by  the 
sovereign  will  and  efficiency  of  a  current  Provi- 
dence, which,  for  reasons  best  known  to  itself, 
says  to  the  stature  and  life  and  growth  of  each 
organic  species,  "Thus  far  shalt  thou  come,  and 
no  farther." 

We  also  find  all  animals  endowed  with  what 
are  called  Instincts. 

At  the  first  introduction  of  any  species  into 
the  world  it  needed  to  have  at  once  certain 
elementary  informations  (or  their  equivalent  in 
blind  impulses)  as  to  ways  and  means  of  living 
and  continuing  the  species.  At  once  the  new 
beings  needed  to  avoid  certain  enemies.  At 
once  they  must  be  able  to  move  about  freely, 
to  find  their  suitable  food  and  drink,  to  appro- 
priate these  by  the  curious  and  artificial  process 
of  eating  and  drinking.  But  originally  they 
had    no    fellows    to    imitate.      They   could    not 


I/O  ECCE    TERRA, 

afford  to  wait  the  slow  teaching  of  experience. 
That  very  day  they  must  begin  to  protect  and 
nourish  the  Hfe  they  had  received.  So,  from 
the  very  outset,  they  had  to  be  suppHed  with 
some  promptly-acting  means  of  guidance.  These 
were  furnished  by  their  Maker,  and  should  be 
allowed  to  be  what  are  now  known  to  us  under 
the  name  of  instincts.  We  find  these  sufficient 
for  the  work  required,  and  they  have  actually 
been  doing  It  as  far  back  as  we  can  trace. 

It  Is  a  question  whether  these  Instincts  came 
necessarily  from  the  very  nature  of  the  animal 
(so  that  God  established  them  In  the  very  act 
of  making  that  nature),  or  whether  he,  by  a 
supplementary  act,  as  it  were,  equipped  that 
nature  with  what  It  needed  but  could  not  sup- 
ply from  itself.  I  am  inclined  to  say  that  just 
as  a  householder,  when  his  house  is  fully  com- 
pleted, still  needs  to  have  certain  furniture 
placed  in  it  to  make  it  fairly  available ;  that  just 
as  a  sailor,  when  his  ship  is  well  launched  and 
quite  done,  even  to  the  last  iota  of  rigging,  still 
needs  to  have  it  provisioned  for  the  voyage ; 
that  just  as  the  inexperienced  owner  of  a  new 
watch  or  factory,  though  it  is  exquisitely  fin- 
ished down  to  the  smallest  details  and  beauti- 
fully running,  still  needs  to  be  shown  how  to 
keep  it  running — so  the  animal  tribes  imme- 
diately on  their  advent,  though  perfect  in  their 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       17I 

way  for  the  time  being,  still  needed  to  be  shown 
at  once  the  ways  and  means  of  continuing  so ; 
to  be  supplied  with  a  certain  preliminary  capi- 
tal of  information  in  order  that  they  might  go 
about  their  business.  A  single  day  must  not 
pass  before  they  know  at  least  what  to  eat  and 
how  to  eat.  So  their  Maker  guided  them — 
gave  them  what  we  call  instincts.  Instead  of 
being  the  necessary  outcome  of  the  nature  of 
the  animal,  instincts  are  an  annex  to  that  na- 
ture by  direct  divine  interposition. 

Let  us  notice  some  of  these  instincts  as  they 
now  exist.  They  give  actions  relating  solely 
to  the  preservation  of  the  individual  and  spe- 
cies. Plainly,  these  actions  do  not  come  from 
imitation,  nor  are  they  reached  in  the  course  of 
many  crude  attempts  and  failures.  But,  quite 
without  help  of  observation  and  experiment, 
and  as  if  by  some  necessity  of  nature,  they  are 
found  done  with  perfect  freeness  and  unerring 
accuracy  just  as  soon  as  occasion  arises — done 
as  well  on  first  attempt,  as  far  as  strength  will 
allow,  as  after  long  practice.  For  example, 
most  animals  immediately  after  birth  fix  without 
hesitation  on  the  kind  of  food  appropriate  to 
them  out  of  many  kinds  around  them  that  are 
inappropriate,  convey  it  to  the  one  right  open- 
ing into  the  body,  and  proceed  to  drink  and 
eat  as  if  veterans  at  the  business.     The  arts  of 


172  ECCE    TERRA, 

running,  swimming,  flying  and  singing  are  ab- 
original with  vast  sections  of  the  animal  races. 
Embryo  languages  that  call,  warn,  defy,  and 
even  elaborately  inform  (as  in  the  case  of  some 
ants),  come  to  them  spontaneously.  What  nat- 
uralists call  "  the  habits  of  animals "  are  not 
habits  at  all,  save  in  the  etymological  sense ; 
the  measures  they  take  to  get  a  living,  to  de- 
fend themselves  against  their  enemies,  to  pro- 
vide for  their  young,  presenting  themselves  com- 
plete as  soon  as  circumstances  call  for  them. 
The  duck  would  hasten  to  the  pool,  the  hen 
scratch  the  ground,  the  pig  root,  the  cattle  seek 
the  pasture,  the  beaver  build  his  dam,  the  gull 
dive  for  fish,  the  humming-bird  probe  the  heart 
of  flowers,  the  squirrel  become  an  acrobat  and 
lay  up  his  stores  of  nuts,  if  from  the  beginning 
secluded  from  all  others  of  its  kind.  The  spi- 
der weaves  its  delicate  web,  spreads  it  out  in 
the  way  of  insects,  lies  in  wait  where  it  can  best 
feel  any  disturbance  of  its  meshes,  waits  till  the 
captive  is  exhausted  by  its  struggles,  then  sal- 
lies forth  to  secure  its  prey — a  born  hunter. 
The  wasp  makes  a  cell,  deposits  its  ^<gg,  places 
by  the  side  of  it  as  many  green  worms  as  will 
suffice  to  feed  its  larva  till  it  eets  wines  and 
can  care  for  itself — a  born  naturalist  as  well  as 
mother.  Many  species  are  born  artists.  The 
bird  will,  without  instruction  or  experience,  at 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        1 73 

the  proper  time  of  the  year,  artistically  build  a 
nest  suitable  in  size,  shape,  material  and  situa- 
tion;  deposit  its  eggs,  sit  on  them  till  the  young 
appear,  provide  the  young  with  suitable  food 
and  protection  till  they  can  care  for  themselves, 
and  then,  perhaps,  as  the  winter  comes  on, 
associate  with  a  host  of  others  of  the  same  spe- 
cies and  mii^rate  to  sunnier  lands.  The  ants 
or  honey-bees  associate  themselves,  come  under 
government,  distribute  occupations  among  them- 
selves, hnd  suitable  places  for  homes,  gather 
and  work  up  fitting  materials  into  -the  wonder- 
ful ant-city  with  its  complex  of  paths  and  its 
magazines  of  winter  stores,  or  into  the  won- 
derful honeycomb  with  its  mathematical  cells 
filled  with  pellucid  nectar.  Hardly  less  curious 
things  are  done  naturally  by  many  other  sorts 
of  animals.  In  many  cases  these  instinctive 
actions  are  a  large  and  Intricate  system,  the 
parts  of  which  are  delicately  framed  into  and 
proportioned  to  each  other  about  as  artificially 
as  are  the  members  of  an  animal  body.  This 
is  most  strikingly  true  of  the  humbler  sorts  of 
animals.  But  every  species  has  its  own  striking 
set  of  measures  conducive  to  self-preservation, 
to  which  it  turns  as  does  the  free  needle  toward 
the  pole — a  set  of  measures  which  it  seems 
born  to,  w^hich  seem  to  come  to  It  on  occasion 
ready  made,  which  all  Its  Individuals  use  with 


174  ECCE    TERRA. 

equal  facility  and  success,  and  in  precisely  the 
same  way,  the  world  over,  and  from  generation 
to  generation — in  short,  things  which  they  seem 
to  do  out  of  the  fullness  of  natural  knowledge. 
To  say  that  such  actions  come  from  mere 
matter  and  its  organization  is  bald  materialism, 
with  its  malarial  consequences.  Such  things 
cannot  give  rise  to  intuitive  intelligence,  or  to 
intelligence  of  any  kind.  As  little  can  they 
give  rise  to  volitions,  which  are  as  spiritual 
products  as  thought  itself,  and  the  immediate 
parents  of  all  the  instinctive  actions  we  have 
been  considering.  And  just  as  little  can  they 
give  rise  to  any  such  blind  impulses  as  are 
equivalent  to  intelligence,  so  far  as  effects  are 
concerned.  If  a  broad  system  of  voluntary 
actions,  such  as  in  man  would  be  thought  to 
imply  intelligence  of  a  high  grade  (such  as  we 
see  in  the  economy  of  bee-life),  can  reasonably 
be  supposed  to  come  in  any  way  from  mere 
bodily  nature  and  structure,  it  is  hard  to  see 
how  such  an  explanation  cannot  reasonably  be 
extended  indefinitely — say  to  all  the  various  ex- 
ternal actions  of  men  and  brutes  that  are  com- 
monly supposed  to  be  prompted  and  guided 
by  intelligence.  Can  matter  be  so  put  to- 
gether as  to  turn  out  results  that  imitate  the 
best  results  of  intelligence  to  that  degree  that 
it  is   impossible  to  discriminate   the   one   class 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        I75 

from  the  other?  If  so,  materialism  is  sufficient 
to  explain  everything,  and  the  Newtonian  phil- 
osophy requires  us  to  use  it  for  that  purpose, 
though  it  carries  in  its  womb  fatalism  and  irre- 
sponsibility, and  so  the  abolition  of  govern- 
ment, of  immortality,  of  religion,  of  God,  of 
moral  distinctions,  and,  finally,  of  the  whole 
frame  of  society — in  short.  Nihilism  that  de- 
vours everything  in  this  world  and  the  next, 
save  hell. 

But  the  brute  nature  has  an  intelligent  part. 
Can  this  give  rise  to  the  intuidons,  or  blind 
impulses,  that  are  the  root  of  the  insdnctive 
acdons  we  have  been  considering?  Can  a?iy 
intelligent  principle  originate  blind  impulses? 
To  say  it  seems  very  much  like  saying  that  it 
is  possible  to  get  out  of  a  thing  what  is  not  in 
it ;  that  it  is  not  a  fundamental  law  that  every- 
thing begets  after  its  kind ;  that  fig  trees  may 
bear  thistles,  grapevines  bramble-berries,  and 
matter  mind.  Can  such  an  intelligence  as  the 
brutes  possess  of  itself  give  intuitions  alto- 
gether above  the  human  ?  If  so,  then  their 
sort  of  mind  is  above  ours.  What  they  see  at 
a  first  glance  we  see  only  after  laborious  sci- 
entific processes.  That  hexagonal  cell  of  the 
bee,  that  provision  which  the  wasp  makes  for 
her  worm-young  of  food  which  she  cannot  eat 
herself,  but  which  is  just  suited  in  quality  and 


1/6  ECCE    TERRA, 

quantity  to  the  larva,  is  to  us  a  research  and 
philosophy — the  luminous  jet  at  the  end  of  a 
considerable  amount  of  machinery.  An  intelli- 
ofence  whose  merest  flashes  of  outlook  are  level 
with  the  researches  of  philosophers  is  grander 
than  the  mind  of  Newton.  But,  in  point  of 
fact,  we  know  that  the  brute  mind  is  nothing 
of  the  sort — a  mere  rushlight  in  the  presence 
of  the  great  effulgent  candelabrum,  a  toy  spy- 
glass in  the  presence  of  the  most  space-pen- 
etrating telescope  that  ever  looked  toward  the 
frontiers  of  creation.  "  Ye  are  of  more  value 
than  many  sparrows."  No,  we  cannot  account 
for  the  ready-made  arts  and  sciences  found  in 
the  bee-hive  or  ant-hill  or  beaver-camp  on  the 
ground  that  they  come,  lightning-paced,  out  of 
the  native  powers  of  such  a  grade  of  intelli- 
ofence  as  this. 

Besides,  if  the  intuitions  in  question  came 
only  from  the  intelligent  part  of  the  animal, 
and  so  depended  solely  on  the  degree  of  its 
power,  they  would  not  be  limited,  as  they  are, 
to  the  means  of  preserving  the  individual  and 
species,  but  would  extend  in  every  direction  to 
other  fields  of  knowledge  of  no  greater  remote- 
ness and  difficulty — just  as  the  eye  that  sees 
clearly  the  objects  at  a  certain  point  in  the  land- 
scape is  not  restricted  to  a  view  of  these,  but, 
in    general,  can    see   with   equal    clearness   all 


I L  LUSTRA  TION  B  V  GREA  T  EXAMPLES.        I J  J 

Other  objects  at  the  same  distance  quite  around 
the  horizon.  Mere  IntelHgence  makes,  not  a 
luminous  hne,  but,  Hke  the  sun,  a  luminous 
sphere.  But  the  instincts  of  the  brute  Illumine 
only  a  long,  narrow  strip  of  the  great  domain 
of  knowledge.  All  other  parts,  however  near, 
on  the  right  hand  and  left,  remain  in  profound 
darkness.  It  is  as  though  the  vision  were  ab- 
rupdy  broken  off  by  solid  black  walls  as  high 
as  heaven.  From  noon  to  midnight.  From 
the  state  of  kings  to  starvation.  The  brutes 
are  no  longer  embodied  arts  and  sciences,  but 
living  know-nothings.  This  looks  very  much 
as  if  their  intuitions  were  given  them  from 
without,  for  a  purpose,  by  some  eclectic  power 
— by  their  Maker,  who  wished  to  qualify  them 
capitally  for  their  place,  but  designed  that 
place  to  be  a  narrow  one — a  narrow  Swiss 
valley  walled  with  Alps,  on  some  lofty  peak  of 
which  man  stands  and  looks  away  freely  Into 
all  Europe. 

Another  epical  fact  common  to  all  organic 
species,  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest,  is  Pa- 
rentage, Let  us  first  notice  It  In  connection 
with  man. 

Man  becomes  a  parent.  A  miniature  self  ap- 
pears— body  as  complete  as  his  own  ;  as  com- 
plete as  his  own  the  new  soul.  Whence  came 
that  child-body  .>     Have   the  parents  had  any- 


12 


1/8  ECCE    TERRA. 

thing  to  do  with  devising  its  world  of  complex 
and  exquisite  mechanism?  Consciously  not — 
no  more  than  the  bird  has  with  devisinor  its 
chicken,  or  the  oak  with  devising  its  sprouting 
acorn.  Are  they  mere  machines,  turning  out 
unintelligently  other  machines  like  themselves? 
This  seems  mechanically  impossible.  A  pin- 
machine  can  turn  out  pins,  but  not  pin-machine 
makej^s.  Men  can  turn  out,  in  an  instrumental 
way,  blood  or  bile,  but  not  men,  and  especially 
not  xn^n-makers.  Even  God  himself  cannot 
make  his  equal.  What  remains  but  for  each 
man  to  say  with  Job,  "Thy  hands  have  made 
me  and  fashioned  me  together  round  about''? 
Further,  with  each  body-birth  there  is  a  soul- 
birth.  The  body  receives  an  inhabitant.  It  is 
not  matter,  but  something  that  can  think,  feel, 
choose.  It  is  not  a  product  of  bodily  organiza- 
tion and  the  chemistries,  but  something  that  can 
survive  the  organism  that  serves  it  for  a  house, 
and  even  flourish  on  for  ever — the  master  of 
the  mansion,  the  charioteer  of  the  chariot,  the 
image  of  the  spiritual  God.  Whence  came  this 
soul  ?  It  remembers  no  past.  It  is  as  fresh 
and  dewy  with  tokens  of  recentness  as  the 
first  bud  of  spring.  Can  body  produce  soul  ? 
Can  even  soul  unconsciously  produce  anoth- 
er soul  ?  In  all  the  range  of  causation,  out- 
side   of    the    present   field    of    inquiry,    where 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        1 79 

has  a  cause  been  known  to  make  the  equal  of 
itself?  But  the  child  is  often  spiritually  supe- 
rior to  the  parent. 

Plainly,  something  besides  nature  must  be 
concerned  in  the  human  production.  Unless 
we  allow  this,  we  must  allow  both  the  possibil- 
ity and  naturalness  of  atheistic  evolution.  For 
if  mere  nature,  without  any  exercise  of  devising 
intelligence,  can  originate  the  simplest  embryo 
of  a  new  man,  and  then,  in  virtue  of  Its  own  re- 
sources, can  develop  that  embryo  in  the  course 
of  some  months  through  various  ascending 
forms  as  diverse  from  each  other  as  species 
into  the  new-born  child,  why  cannot  it  generate 
some  inoneron,  and  then  develop  it  in  the  course 
of  some  millions  of  years  through  various  like 
ascending  specific  forms  Into  a  man  ?  It  can. 
And  so  there  is  no  need  of  a  God  to  account 
for  anything.  If  we  reject  this  conclusion  we 
must  claim  that,  behind  the  veil  of  natural 
conditions  and  agencies,  the  supernatural  Is 
active  In  every  case  of  reproduction.  Each 
new  human  body  as  much  requires  a  divine 
Framer  as  did  the  first  man.  Each  new  human 
soul  as  much  requires  a  divine  Author  as  did 
the  soul  of  Adam. 

Now,  these  wondrous  births  have  been  grolne 
on  from  the  beginning  with  ever-Increasing  free- 
ness ;   the  one  trunk  put  forth  branches,  each 


l8o  ECCE    TERRA. 

of  these  branches  itself  ramified,  each  of  these 
ramifications  spread  itself  out  abruptly  into  an 
immense  fan  of  new  being,  and  so  on  until  now 
some  two  hundred  thousand  new  human  bodies 
and  souls  present  themselves  on  the  earth  each 
day. 

But  this  is  only  one  of  many  streams  of  de- 
scent. For  a  long  time  before  the  flux  of  hu- 
man generations  began,  innumerable  other  births 
scarcely  less  wonderful  had  taken  place  among 
the  brute  and  vegetable  races  ;  and  these  have 
continued  without  intermission,  in  floods  that 
defy  statement  or  imagination,  down  to  the 
present  time.  At  least  a  hundred  thousand 
species  of  flora  are  continually  (as  we  say) 
reproducing  themselves  and  making  the  whole 
earth  green  with  perpetual  youth.  At  least  a 
million  species  of  brute  fauna  are  continually 
(as  we  say)  reproducing  themselves — some  of 
them  with  amazing  rapidity.  Thus,  a  single 
herring  can  deposit  about  forty  thousand  eggs 
in  one  season,  a  flounder  a  million,  the  common 
oyster  still  more ;  and  an  insect  called  the  Cy- 
clops in  four  months  can  have  forty-five  hun- 
dred millions  of  descendants.  The  microscopic 
animalculse  are  still  more  prolific,  a  single  indi- 
vidual of  one  species  being  capable  of  multiply- 
ing in  four  days  to  one  hundred  and  seventy 
billions.     When  we  consider  the  vast  numbers 


ILL  USTRA  TION  B  Y  GREA  T  EXAMPLES.        1 8 1 

of  individuals  in  many  of  these  species — as,  for 
example,  in  that  of  the  herrings,  each  of  which 
sometimes  sends  out  a  thousand  billions  or 
more  in  a  single  company — and  how  each  one 
of  these  increases  like  money  at  compound 
daily  interest,  we  feel  quite  lost  in  this  perpet- 
ual deluge  of  new  life.  What  is  it  but  a  per- 
petual deluge  of  personal  divine  action — of 
wondrous  divine  action  ? 

The  utter  insufficiency  of  merely  natural  cau- 
sation to  account  for  a  single  one  of  these  prac- 
tically infinite  reproductions  ought  to  be  easily 
admitted.  The  same  reasons  that  demand  the 
supernatural  for  each  new  man  demand  it  for 
each  new  worm  or  weed.  A  thing  cannot  make 
the  equal  of  itself.  It  is  against  experience.  It 
is  unthinkable.  Accordingly,  the  Scriptures  de- 
clare that  the  heathen  are  without  excuse  for 
not  knowing  God,  because  his  works  immedi- 
ately about  them  (not  some  remote  first  pa- 
rents) clearly  declare  his  eternal  power  and 
Godhead.  That  is,  the  pi^esent  environment  of 
every  man,  the  wonders  now  seen  in  the  earth 
and  sky,  are  plainly  unexplainable  by  mere  na- 
ture. It  is  not  necessary  for  him  to  grope  his 
way  back  some  thousands  of  years  to  a  begin- 
ning of  the  organic  races  in  adult  individuals 
which  only  a  true  God  could  have  made.  Other- 
wise, he  would  have  a  very  good  excuse  for  not 


1 82  ECCE    TERRA. 

knowing  him — If  the  impossibility  of  doing  it 
can  be  considered  a  good  excuse. 

It  is  commonly  said  that  the  age  of  miracles 
has  long  since  passed,  and  that  God  never  now 
gives  water  from  a  rock  nor  bread  from  the 
sky.  And  unbelievers  are  apt  to  clamor  for  at 
least  one  good  rousing  miracle,  and  to  protest 
that  if  it  could  be  had  they  would  at  once  flash 
into  faith  as  gunpowder  flashes  at  the  touch 
of  a  live  coal.  Miracles  !  Let  people  look  about 
them.  Not  a  day  passes  that  is  not  more  shin- 
ine  with  miracles  of  creation  and  construction 
than  it  is  with  the  sun.  We  float  in  miracles  as 
ships  do  in  the  ocean.  Our  homes,  though  men 
call  them  hovels,  are  floored  and  walled  and 
ceiled  with  this  gold.  No  miracles  now-a- 
days !  It  is  time  such  talk  had  ceased — time 
to  cease  quietly  assuming,  as  even  Christians 
are  apt  to  do,  despite  the  whole  tenor  of 
Scripture,  that  amazing  postulate  that  mere 
nature  is  amply  sufficient  to  account  for  the 
successive  generations  of  the  world.  What  a 
mistake !  Parents  are  hardly  more  than  a 
divine  laboratory,  or  the  chariots  by  which  the 
young  ride  into  being.  The  Amazon,  sweep- 
ing on  to  the  sea  in  ever-widening  flood,  is 
modified  in  many  respects  by  the  country 
through  which  it  passes ;  but  every  new  drop 
contributed    to    it   at   any    point   comes    from 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        1 83 

above — from  yonder  high  and  snowy  peak  or 
yonder  higher  sky. 

6.  A  Great  Unity. 

All  men,  however  far  apart  in  place  and 
physical  characteristics,  are  descended  from  a 
single  pair.  This  doctrine,  though  generally 
admitted  by  scholars,  has  sometimes  been  ob- 
jected to  on  the  ground  of  the  very  great  dif- 
ferences between  the  races  of  men,  especially 
between  the  Caucasian  and  the  negro.  But 
these  differences  are  such  in  kind  as  differences 
of  climate  and  modes  of  living,  in  connection 
with  well-known  laws  of  heredity,  are  found  to 
make  in  the  course  of  long  periods,  and  are  no 
greater  in  degree  than  sometimes  exist  between 
persons  known  to  be  of  the  same  stock.  We 
find  great  variety  among  Englishmen  as  to  stat- 
ure, complexion,  thickness  of  lip,  straightness 
of  hair  and  frontal  development.  Even  in  the 
same  family  the  children  are  often  vastly  unlike 
each  other,  both  physically  and  mentally. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  persons  beginning 
with  such  a  great  divergence  should,  in  the 
lapse  of  generations,  produce  descendants  as 
far  apart  as  are  Europeans  and  Nubians.  Two 
very  unlike  brothers,  separating  into  two  very 
unlike  countries  and  marrying  very  unlike 
wives,  would  naturally  have  families  still  more 


1 84  ECCE    TERRA. 

unlike  each  other;  and  a  repetition  of  this  pro- 
cess through  several  generations  might  easily 
give  us  as  wide  a  range  of  varieties  in  men  as 
we  actually  find. 

American  history  carries  us  back  to  Europe ; 
European  history  carries  us  back  to  Rome  and 
to  rude  tribes  drifting  westward  from  Asia 
along  the  northern  parallels ;  the  history  of 
Rome  carries  us  back  to  the  Asian  Troad  and 
to  the  Greek  colonies  of  Ma^na  Grecia ;  the 
history  of  Greece  carries  us  back  to  the  immi- 
gration of  the  Asian  Hellenes  and  to  the  crude 
embryos  of  states  that  were  looking  wonder- 
Ingly  toward  the  already  full-grown  glories  of 
Tyre  and  Thebes  and  Babylon  and  Nineveh, 
and  the  rich  and  populous  empires  which  some 
of  these  great  cities  represented. 

By  the  general  consent  of  historians,  these 
cities,  especially  the  last  two,  show  us  the 
earliest  known  peoples.  Existing  monuments 
confirm  this  testimony.  The  general  result  of 
the  latest  researches  Is  stated  by  Prof.  Rawlin- 
son  as  follows :  "  Cuneiform  scholars  confident- 
ly place  the  beginnings  of  Babylon  about  r.  c. 
2300;  of  Assyria,  about  b.  c.  1500.  For  Phoe- 
nicia the  date  assigned  by  the  latest  English 
Investlo^ator  is  the  sixteenth  or  seventeenth 
century  before  Christ.  The  best  Aryan  schol- 
ars place  the  dawn  of  Iranic  civilization  about 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        1 85 

B.C.  1500;  of  India,  about  B.C.  1200.  Chinese 
investigation  can  find  nothing-  soHd  or  sub- 
stantial in  the  past  of  the  Celestials  earlier 
than  B.C.  781,  or,  at  the  farthest,  B.C.  11 54.  In 
Europe  the  incipient  civilization  delineated  by- 
Homer  may  have  commenced  as  early  as  the 
Trojan  epoch,  which  is  probably  about  b.  c. 
1 300-1 200.  No  other  European  civilization 
can  compete  with  this — the  Etruscan  not 
reaching  back  farther  than  about  b.  c.  650  or 
700." 

Leaving  out  of  view  that  much-debated  coun- 
try, Egypt,  whose  antiquity  has  of  late  so  dwin- 
dled in  the  thought  of  scholars,  we  find  that 
the  lines  of  history  converge  on  Asia,  and  es- 
pecially on  the  region  about  the  Euphrates,  as 
the  most  ancient  seat  of  the  human  race,  where 
it  first  ripened  into  nations  and  whence  it  radi- 
ated into  other  parts  of  the  world. 

Years  ago  Humboldt  told  the  world  that  the 
American  Indians  of  the  Far  West  were  indis- 
« solubly  united  by  the  ties  of  language  with  the 
Asiatics.  Later,  Max  Miiller  wrote :  "  There 
was  a  time  when  the  ancestors  of  the  Celts, 
the  Germans,  the  Persians,  the  Hindus,  were 
living  together  under  the  same  roof."  The  lan- 
guages of  all  these  peoples  have  certain  com- 
mon radicals.  The  same  elemental  terms  for 
tree,  ox,  father,  mother,  son,  daucrhter,  heart, 


1 86  ECCE    TERRA. 

tears,  dog,  cow,  God,  are  found,  more  or  less 
disguised,  in  them  all.  Each  is  a  composite 
made  up  of  the  fragments  of  earlier  speech, 
and  among  these  fragments  are  some  that  are 
common  to  all  the  Indo-European  languages, 
though  immemorially  separated  by  whole  earth- 
diameters.  These  common  elements  are  ex- 
ceedingly primitive  in  their  aspect — as  readily 
seen  to  be  primitive  as  are  fossil  trilobites 
when  found  by  geologists  in  situ. 

Just  as  the  structures  of  modern  Rome  show 
in  their  walls  the  remains  of  the  ancient  city, 
and  so  proclaim  it ;  just  as  the  later  geologic 
formations  show  in  themselves  the  ruins  of 
primary  rock,  and  so  proclaim  it, — so  the  pres- 
ent Indo-European  languages  proclaim  in  their 
make-up  a  common  quarry  of  ancient  speech 
from  which,  in  part,  they  have  drawn  their  ma- 
terials. As  these  common  materials  are  laro-e- 
ly,  if  not  wholly,  arbitrary  and  conventional, 
they  must  have  come  from  one  source.  Lin- 
guistic scholars  are  practically  a  unit  in  this 
verdict;  also  in  thinking  that  this  original 
tongue  was  Asian,  was  inland,  and  is  most 
fully  represented  to-day  by  the  Persian  and 
Sanskrit  tongues.  The  mother-speech  was  a 
child  of  Central  Asia. 

But  this  relates  only  to  the  Aryan  or  Indo- 
European  family  of  languages.     What  of  the 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        1 8/ 

Turanian  and  Semitic  and  other  outlying 
tongues  not  yet  fairly  classified  ?  Can  they 
be  traced  back  to  the  same  ultimate  fountain- 
head  with  the  rest? 

The  answer  to  this  question  does  not  rest  on 
so  broad  a  foundation  of  research  as  does  the 
conclusion  just  stated  as  to  the  Indo-European 
tongues,  and  yet  the  leading  linguists  of  the 
day  have  seen  their  way  to  say  that  "  nothing 
necessitates  the  admission  of  different  inde- 
pendent beginnings  for  the  material  elements 
of  the  Turanian,  Semitic  and  Aryan  branches 
of  speech;  nay,  it  is  possible  even  now  to  point 
out  radicals  which  under  various  chano-es  and 

o 

disguises  have  been  current  in  these  branches 
ever  since  their  first  separation."  And  Max 
Miiller,  whose  words  have  just  been  quoted, 
and  who  is  our  greatest  authority  in  such  mat- 
ters, goes  so  far  as  to  say :  ''  If  inductive  rea- 
soning is  worth  anything,  we  are  justified  in 
believing  that  what  has  been  proved  to  be  true 
on  so  large  a  scale,  and  in  cases  where  it  was 
least  expected,  is  true  in  regard  to  language  In 
general."  That  is,  all  the  wisps  and  spurs  of 
language  have  not  as  yet  been  carefully  stud- 
ied, but  so  many  of  Its  main  streams  have  been 
followed  that  their  general  trend  toward  unity 
Is  clear,  and  the  induction  Is  imperative  that,  as 
the  St.  Petersburg  Academy  says,  "All  dialects 


l88  ECCE    TERRA. 

are  to  be  considered  as  dialects  of  one  now 
lost."  This  is  agreed  to  by  such  men  as 
Klaproth  and  Herder  even,  who  look  with 
litde  favor  on  the  Book  that  says,  ''And  the 
whole  earth  was  of  one  speech  and  one  lan- 
guage." 

As  one  examines  the  main  streams  in  a 
country,  and  finds  one  after  another,  even 
those  widest  apart,  flowing  toward  the  same 
sea,  he  has  the  right  gradually  to  get  confident 
that  the  remaining  small  streams  scattered 
among  them  have  the  same  destination. 

Thus,  the  lines  of  both  history  and  language 
converge  on  unity.  We  find  our  thought 
beckoned  to  one  central  district  in  Asia,  to  one 
people,  to  one  primal  speech,  and  at  last  to 
that  one  original  pair  of  which  traditions,  as 
well  as  our  Scriptures,  tell.  For  not  only  do 
we  find  among  the  leading  and  widely-separ- 
ated nations  traditions  of  a  Flood,  of  a  preced- 
ing age  of  supreme  wickedness,  of  a  primitive 
Golden  Age — which  can  be  reasonably  ex- 
plained only  by  supposing  a  time  when  men 
were  all  together  as  one  people,  holding  these 
views  and  carrying  them  with  them  as  they 
diverged  into  different  countries — but  also  tra- 
ditions of  a  single  pair  from  which  have  sprung 
all  the  nations  of  mankind.  Says  Max  Miiller: 
••So  far  as  I  know,  there  has  been  no  nation  on 


ILL  US  TRA  TION  B  V  GREA  T  EXAMPL ES.        1 89 

the  earth  which,  if  it  preserved  any  traditions 
on  the  origin  of  mankind,  did  not  derive  the 
human  race  from  one  pair,  if  not  from  one  per- 
son." Also,  Wilhelm  von  Humboldt,  quoted 
with  approval  by  his  brother  in  Cosmos:  "The 
separate  mythical  relations,  found  to  exist  inde- 
pendently of  one  another  in  different  parts  of 
the  earth,  concur  in  ascribing  the  generation 
of  the  whole  human  race  to  the  union  of  one 
pair." 

The  Bible  speaks  of  but  one  original  pair. 
Eve  is  called  the  "mother  of  all  the  living." 
Prof.  Rawlinson,  in  his  Origin  of  Nations,  shows 
that  Genesis  lo  expressly  derives  the  leading 
Gentile  nations  from  Noah.  In  the  New  Testa- 
ment the  sin  and  death  of  our  whole  race  are 
traced  to  the  fall  of  one  man :  "As  by  one  man 
sin  entered  into  the  world,  and  death  by  sin, 
and  so  death  passed  upon  all  men,  for  that  all 
have  sinned."  In  short,  the  Scripture  testi- 
mony in  this  direction  is  so  clear  and  abundant 
that  a  belief  in  the  unity  of  human  origin  has 
ever  been  wellnigh  universal  among  believers 
in  the  Bible. 

From  the  fact  that  all  the  streams  of  human- 
ity have  diverged  from  one  source,  it  follows 
that  this  source  was  supernaturally  opened.  If 
nature  had  made  man  at  the  first,  he  would  liave 
had  several  distinct  origins,  especially  in   the 


190  ECCE    TERRA. 

course  of  the  long  stretch  of  ages  during  which 
animal  hfe  has  flourished  on  our  globe.  For 
aueht  we  can  see,  mere  natural  circumstances 
have  been  quite  as  favorable  in  a  thousand 
places  and  times  as  in  one  for  the  spontaneous 
generation  of  animal  life  and  for  its  develop- 
ment on  the  human  stage.  The  nature  that 
made  its  way  without  help  to  one  human  pair 
is  very  unlikely  to  have  stopped  abruptly  at 
that  single  wonder,  and  never  once  in  all 
these  years  and  lands  have  duplicated  it.  The 
chances  are  many  millions  to  one  against  it. 

Our  unity  of  origin  also  implies  a  divine  ad- 
ministratio7i  through  all  past  ages,  confining  the 
currents  of  man-constructing  energy  to  one 
channel.  Nature  could  fiot  restrain  the  exercise 
of  this  energy  in  God ;  she  would  not  restrain 
its  exercise  in  herself.  The  unthinking,  uni- 
versal mother,  pushing  out  her  motherly  forces 
in  every  direction,  and  finding  as  little  obstruc- 
tion to  their  play  in  Africa  and  America  as  in 
Asia,  as  little  obstruction  in  the  year  6000  or 
4000  Anno  Mundi  as  in  the  year  One,  would 
not  have  narrowed  herself  down  to  a  single 
birth  in  Eden,  but  would  have  given  many  in- 
dependent births  from  the  ''rising  of  the  sun  to 
the  going  down  of  the  same,"  and  from  the  be- 
ginning until  now. 


illustration  by  great  examples.      i9i 

7.  Language. 

Spoken  language  is  one  of  the  seven  won- 
ders of  the  world.  It  broadly  divides  man  from 
all  other  animals.  Max  Miiller  thinks  he  sees 
in  it  a  complete  refutation  of  the  notion  that 
man  is  genetically  derived  from  lower  species — 
by  no  means  the  only  refutation  of  that  ungra- 
cious notion. 

Notwithstanding  the  mechanical  and  parrot 
imitations  of  the  human  voice  by  some  brutes, 
none  of  them  really  make  any  approach  to  ra- 
tional speech,  and  no  ingenuity  and  patience  in 
training  have  been  found  able  to  bridge  the 
great  gulf  between  the  chatter  of  the  ape  and 
the  majesty  of  articulate  speech.  And  yet  such 
speech  is  practically  universal  among  men. 
There  is  no  known  human  tribe  that  does  not 
possess  it.  We  search  history,  and  even  tra- 
ditions, in  vain  for  a  people  that  has  not  its 
system,  more  or  less  copious,  of  arbitrary  vo- 
cal signs  for  expressing  facts,  and  also  its  own 
thoughts  and  feelings  in  view  of  those  facts. 
Nay,  on  the  very  frontiers  of  the  past,  and 
among  men  as  incapable  of  devising  a  rich 
laneua^e  for  themselves  as  were  the  contem- 
poraries  of  Homer  of  devising  that  of  the  Iliad, 
we  find  some  of  the  noblest  tongues.  The 
Greek,  Arabic,  Hebrew,  Sanskrit,  are  fit  to  ex- 


192  ECCE    TERRA. 

press  the  widest  range  of  fact  and  thought,  the 
most  delicate  scientific  distinctions  and  subtle- 
ties and  the  loftiest  flights  of  aspiration  and 
fancy.  And  sometimes  they  fairly  thunder  and 
lighten  with  passion  and  thought  and  charac- 
ter. But  into  all  speech  the  soul  projects  it- 
self as  it  does  into  nothing  else.  Here  may  be 
found  all  the  lights  and  shadows  of  humanity, 
all  its  greatness  and  littleness,  all  its  joys  and 
sorrows,  all  its  virtues  and  sins. 

Then  what  a  wonder  of  endurance  amid  won- 
ders of  change !  Dynasties  and  empires  have 
fallen,  arts  and  civilizations  have  died  out,  but 
speech  still  lives  on  in  undecaying  vigor.  Not, 
indeed,  without  its  chancres.  It  has  its  flows 
and  ebbs ;  becomes  more  or  less  copious  as 
knowledge  advances  or  recedes;  puts  on  new 
dresses  to  suit  the  changed  conditions,  tastes 
and  fashions  of  men  ;  branches  off  easily  into 
new  forms,  syntaxes  and  dialects,  as  the  Latin 
has  done  to  form  the  languages  of  Southern 
Europe ;  but  as  to  dying,  or  even  being  sick, 
it  has  not  even  thought  of  such  a  thing.  A 
dead  language !  The  world  has  never  yet  seen 
that  corpse.  The  Latin  has  become  a  Spaniard, 
a  Frenchman  an  Italian,  almost  an  Englishman ; 
that  is  all.  Migrations,  cataclysms,  barbarisms, 
amalgamations,  fissions,  do  not  touch  its  essen- 
tial life.    It  laughs  them  all  to  scorn,  and  refuses 


ILLUSTRATION  BY   GREAT  EXAMPLES.        1 93 

to  be  crushed  by  even  the  great  wheels  of  the 
ages  that  grind  rocks  and  empires  to  dust. 

How  did  men  come  by  this  great  acquisition? 
Some  say  that  it  is  a  purely  human  invention; 
primitive  men  having  gradually  found  their  way 
to  it,  in  the  course  of  long  periods,  under  the 
pressure  of  their  needs  and  powers.  Others 
say  that  speech  originally  came  directly  from 
God,  as  did  those  primary  knowledges  of  the 
brutes  which  we  call  instincts — that  God  did 
not  merely  furnish  man  with  powers  sufficient 
to  invent  it,  but  that,  like  their  adult  size  and 
furnished  home,  it  came  to  the  first  pair  ready- 
made,  a  regium  doimm,  a  part  of  the  original 
capital  with  which  a  rich  Father  sent  them  forth 
into  the  world.  Is  there  anything  in  speech  it- 
self, or  in  its  history,  that  does  not  harmonize 
with  this  latter  view  ? 

To  be  sure,  spoken  words  are  to  a  vast  ex- 
tent deceitful,  abusive,  heretical,  slanderous, 
profane  and  corrupting.  At  times  we  can  do 
the  facts  justice  only  by  saying  that  "the  tongue 
is  an  unruly  evil,  full  of  deadly  poison  ;  a  fire,  a 
world  of  iniquity,  setting  on  fire  the  course  of 
nature,  and  set  on  fire  of  hell."  And  yet,  with 
all  the  drawbacks  on  speech  from  the  ignorance, 
carelessness,  folly  and  wickedness  of  men,  every 
sensible  man  would  think  it  a  calamity  were  the 
race  to  be  struck  dumb.     But  even  if  it  would 

13 


194  ECCE    TERRA, 

not  be  so — if  ii  could  be  shown  that  thus  far  in 
the  human  history  the  harm  done  by  speech  has. 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  greatly  exceeded  the  good — 
it  would  not  follow  that  such  a  orift  could  not 
properly  come  from  God.  Plainly,  that  harm 
has  no  necessary  connection  with  speech,  any 
more  than  rust  has  with  a  royal  sword.  Its 
nature  no  more  enforces  its  beinor  a  curse  than 
does  the  nature  of  the  esculent  grain  enforce 
whisky,  drunkenness,  and  at  last  brutedom  and 
murder.  Dealt  with  as  we  may  deal  with  it, 
dealt  with  reasonably  and  righteously,  it  would 
at  once  shed  what  is  low  and  unsightly  as  the 
butterfly  does  its  caterpillar  envelope.  Then 
how  brilliant  would  appear  that  speech  which 
even  now  shows,  through  haze  and  cloud,  so 
many  brilliant  points  of  utility! 

Speech  is  the  easiest  and  clearest  means  of 
communication  between  man  and  man.  It  is  the 
voice  of  consolation  to  the  stricken,  of  instruc- 
tion to  the  ignorant,  of  hope  to  the  desponding, 
of  affection  to  friends,  of  warninor  to  the  endan- 
gered,  of  rebuke  to  sin,  of  persuasion  toward 
righteousness.  It  is  the  chief  instrument  by 
which  parents  and  others  train  the  earlier  and 
more  plastic  years  of  life  to  intelligence,  virtue 
and  usefulness ;  indeed,  it  is  a  main  factor  in 
education  at  all  stages,  especially  as  being  the 
foundation  of  written  language,  and  so  of  all 


ILLUSTRATION   BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        1 95 

those  accumulations  of  fact  and  thought  which 
make  each  generation  the  heir  of  all  its  prede- 
cessors. It  is  the  eloquence  that  persuades  in 
democracies  and  legislatures  to  just  measures 
and  laws.  It  is  the  voice  of  prayer,  of  sacred 
song,  of  the  Christian  ministry  going  into  all 
the  world  and  preaching  the  gospel  to  every 
creature.  Nay,  it  is  the  voice  of  Christ  speak- 
ing "as  never  man  spake." 

Are  the  primary  teachings  of  cultured  and 
virtuous  homes  useful  ?  Is  that  useful  which 
makes  society  possible  and  puts  man  in  close 
communication  with  both  earth  and  Heaven  ? 
Do  we  owe  anything  to  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel,  the  tuneful  speech  of  praising  congre- 
gations, the  devout  upliftings  of  public  prayer 
and  the  glory  of  audible  worship  in  closet  or 
family  or  temple  ?  Blot  out  the  good  done  by 
conversation  ;  by  oral  teaching  in  the  nursery, 
the  school,  the  university;  by  lectures,  orations, 
sermons;  by  discussions,  appeals,  expositions  in 
conventions  and  congresses  and  cabinets  and 
courts  of  justice, — and  our  whole  landscape, 
away  to  the  uttermost  horizon,  would  be 
shaded  into  inkiness  by  the  terrible  spatter- 
work. 

A  word  spoken  In  due  season,  how  good  is 
it !  Nothing  less  than  "  apples  of  gold  in  pic- 
tures of  silver."    Nothing  less  than  "a  precious 


196  ECCE    TERRA. 

jewel."  Is  it  not  the  foster-mother  of  both 
civilization  and  religion  ?  Such  a  thing  as  this, 
with  which  evils  in  the  main  have  no  more  vital 
connection  than  weeds  have  with  a  garden, 
clouds  with  the  sun,  poisonous  serpents  with 
the  broad  and  fruitful  river  whose  banks  they 
haunt,  and  from  which  they  will  be  gradually 
driven  as  the  surrounding  country  becomes 
settled  and  improved — such  a  thing  is  this 
speech  of  ours,  which  w^hen  reasonably  used 
is  always  beneficent,  the  irrigator  of  deserts, 
the  cleanser  of  Augean  stables,  the  distributor 
of  truth  and  religion  and  social  riches  among 
men,  and  so  harmonizing  perfectly  with  the  idea 
that  it  came  directly  from  God  ;  as,  indeed,  the 
Scriptures  seem  to  clearly  teach  that  it  did. 
For  they  show  our  first  parents,  while  they 
were  yet  in  the  garden  (which  could  have  been 
for  a  short  time  only,  else  they  would  have  be- 
come confirmed  in  obedience),  naming  the  brutes 
about  them  and  holding  converse  with  each 
other,  with  their  Maker  and  with  the  tempter. 
It  appears  that  they  were  able  from  the  first 
to  understand  the  divine  words  that  told  them 
of  their  sovereignty  over  the  other  living  tribes, 
of  what  they  were  to  use  for  food,  of  their  duties 
in  caring  for  the  garden,  and  of  the  terms  on 
which  alone  they  could  retain  their  beautiful 
home  and  the  divine  favor.     So,  from  the  very 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        1 9/ 

beginning,  man  was  in  possession  of  language: 
as  the  bee  is  in  possession  of  the  art  of  cell- 
building,  and  the  singing  bird  of  his  variety  of 
song.  And  yet  a  system  of  vocal  signs  for 
outward  and  mental  facts  does  not  necessarily 
spring  at  once  from  the  human  nature  and  en- 
vironment. It  is  purely  arbitrary.  So  the  di- 
vine action  implied  in  it  was  distinct  from  that 
which  created  man  and  set  him  in  his  place. 
This  was  only  the  first  verse  of  a  long  chap- 
ter. "  Holy  men  of  God  spake  as  they  were 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost."  They  spake,  "  not 
in  the  words  which  man  teacheth,  but  which 
the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth."  And  some  of  them, 
when  brought  before  rulers,  found  the  promise 
fulfilled  which  said,  "It  shall  be  given  you  in 
the  same  hour  what  ye  ought  to  speak."  En- 
couraged by  such  cases,  Christians  have  often 
found  confidence  to  pray  that  God  would  ''  put 
right  words  into  their  mouths  as  well  as  right 
thoughts  into  their  minds  ;"  and,  seemingly, 
have  not  prayed  in  vain. 

8.  Universal  Faiths. 
In  a  survey  of  mankind  we  find  everywhere 
certain  fundamental  religious  convictions :  for 
example,  that  man  consists  of  two  very  dissim- 
ilar parts,  a  material  body,  and  an  immaterial 
soul  within  it ;  that  there  is  a  most  important 


198  ECCE    TERRA. 

distinction  in  the  very  nature  of  things  between 
rieht  and  wrongr;  that  there  is  a  world  of  in- 
visible  beings,  whose  chief  is,  to  all  intents  and 
purposes,  infinitely  above  the  human  level ;  that 
worship  is  due  to  this  great  Being;  that  he  has 
much  to  do  with  human  affairs;  that  he  holds 
men  responsible  for  character  and  conduct  in  a 
future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments ;  that, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  men  are  universally  very 
guilty  beings;  that  yet  atonement  may  be  made 
for  sin,  the  Deity  placated  and  pardon  secured. 
Such  views  have  been  held  by  the  great  masses 
of  men  in  every  known  age.  If  here  and  there 
a  person  has  expressed  dissent,  his  puny  voice 
has  been  drowned  in  the  general  chorus  of  hu- 
manity. 

Amonof  those  who  read  these  words  there 
will  be  but  one  mind  as  to  the  salutary  charac- 
ter of  these  world-wide  convictions.  They  are 
to  our  broken  human  nature  what  the  splints 
are  to  the  broken  limb  around  which  they  are 
securely  fastened — the  necessary  conditions  of 
its  safety  and  recovery.  They  do  not  set  the 
limb,  but  they  keep  the  fracture  from  enlarging 
till  the  surgeon  arrives,  and,  when  he  has  done 
his  work,  they  secure  it  and  enable  the  parts  to 
knit  together. 

This  is  a  fair  statement,  as  far  as  it  goes. 
But  it  does   not  go  far  enough.     It   is   hardly 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        I99 

possible  to  state  too  strongly  the  importance 
of  those  great  religious  beliefs  that  so  dominate 
every  nation  and  age.  They  are  the  mother 
of  all  wholesome  restraints,  the  father  and 
mother  of  all  wholesome  promptings.  They 
are  anchors  to  hold  us  back  from  universal 
breakers,  gales  to  waft  us  toward  all  heavenly 
harbors.  They  are  the  only  ground  on  which 
we  can  set  up  our  catapults  against  temptation 
and  wickedness,  the  only  ground  on  which  we 
can  build  and  fortify  a  positive  and  enduring 
human  virtue.  They  are  the  last  foundation 
of  practical  morals  ;  and,  whatever  rubbish  has 
gathered  over  them,  or  whatever  unsightly 
structures  have  been  raised  on  them  by  igno- 
rance, superstition  and  wickedness,  they  are 
still  the  great  and  phenomenal  substructions 
of  Solomon's  temple,  worthy  of  a  better  fate, 
and  on  which  some  day  a  glorious  temple  will 
stand.  The  world  is  bad  enoueh  with  these 
cosmic  notions  ;  without  them  it  would  be  the 
mouth  of  hell.  The  foul  outpouring  breath 
would  poison  us  to  the  very  centre,  convert  us 
into  one  huge  cancer:  and  now,  what  shall  be 
done  with  the  horrible  thinof,  save  to  cut  it  out 
of  the  universe  by  the  sharp  surgery  of  the 
Almighty  ?  Blow,  all  ye  winds,  blow !  and 
drive  back  into  its  parent  pit  that  noisome 
pestilence. 


200  ECCE    TERRA. 

Such  is  the  vast  worth  of  those  primary  re- 
hgious  behefs  which,  so  far  as  we  can  trace, 
have  always  leavened  the  masses  of  mankind. 
For  God  to  have  introduced  them  by  direct 
revelation  would  not  have  been  unworthy  of 
him,  but  the  contrary.  We  say  at  once,  and 
almost  without  needing  a  moment  for  thought, 
"  Such  an  origin  is  perfectly  credible,  is  quite 
consistent  with  all  we  know  of  God,  is  just 
what  we  would  naturally  expect  from  him. 
Instead  of  bringing  his  hand  into  suspicion,  it 
would  positively  illustrate  and  emphasize  its 
goodness  and  wisdom." 

But  much  more  can  be  said.  A  house  needs 
more  or  less  furniture  to  make  it  available. 
After  man  was  made  he  needed  at  once  the 
elementary  informations  on  religious  matters 
which  have  just  been  mentioned,  as  the  capital 
on  which  to  start  his  career — needed  them  just 
as  much  as  the  brutes  need  those  instincts  with 
which  they  are  born.  But  none  of  these  ele- 
mentary informations  are  intuitive.  None  of 
them  are  such  easy  and  dynamic  deductions 
from  reason  and  observation  as  of  themselves 
to  enforce  the  attention  and  faith  of  all  man- 
kind. Witness  the  laborious  and  misty  specu- 
lations of  even  such  ripened  men  as  Socrates 
and  Plato.  The  unfledged  and  unaided  powers 
of  our  first  parents  could  hardly  have  succeeded 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       20I 

better — would  not  have  succeeded  so  well.  At 
the  best,  it  would  have  been  a  mere  fluttering 
and  panting  without  progress.  So  God  was 
called  upon  to  furnish  them  what  they  needed 
by  direct  revelation.  So,  no  doubt,  he  did 
furnish  them. 

The  observed  facts,  like  the  streamers  of  an 
advancing  army,  point  backward  to  the  same 
conclusion.  The  elementary  religious  convic- 
tions, universal  and  immemorial,  and  which 
have  always  been  held,  not  as  a  logic  but  as 
an  heirloom,  must  have  come  down  to  us  from 
the  common  ancestors  of  the  race.  Whence 
did  these  common  ancestors  get  them  ?  They 
were,  at  least,  no  more  like  axioms  to  the  first 
man  than  they  are  to  the  last.  They  were  no 
nearer  the  surface  to  the  unaided  eyes  of  our 
first  parents  than  they  are  to  ours.  The  gold 
nuggets  must  have  shone  up  to  them  very 
doubtfully,  if  at  all,  as  from  the  depths  of 
shadowy  mines.  At  the  best  they  would  have 
appeared  to  that  fresh,  unpracticed  vision  as 
do  objects  to  one  who  has  just  opened  his  eyes 
from  sleep  in  the  light  of  morning.  So  God 
came  to  the  help  of  the  dazed  eyes.  He  di- 
rectly revealed  to  them  what  they  needed  to 
know  at  once,  but  could  not  at  once  discover 
for  themselves. 

The  Scriptures  teach  as  much.     For  they  tell 


202  ECCE    TERRA. 

US  that  God  manifested  himself  directly  to  our 
first  parents,  held  free  verbal  communication 
with  them,  told  them  of  various  thines  consid- 
erably  less  important  than  the  fundamental  re- 
ligious truths.  This  fact  alone  assures  us  that 
these  latter  truths  were  not  left  unrevealed. 
The  less  would  not  have  been  told  and  the 
greater  left  unnoticed.  We  are  now  in  the 
presence  of  the  "law  written  in  the  hearts  of 
men  "  and  of  a  ''  faith  that  is  the  gift  of  God." 

In  addition  to  that  divine  action  that  made 
man  there  was  another  divine  action  altoeether 
distinct :  it  was  that  which  supplied  him  with  cer- 
tain primary  religious  ideas  for  which  he  could 
not  afford  to  wait  on  reason,  and  which,  indeed, 
the  mass  of  men  could  never  have  argued  out 
with  sufficient  clearness  for  their  needs. 

9.  Sacred  Writings. 
I  seem  to  be  traveling  through  some  astonish- 
ing country  full  of  objects  not  to  be  seen  else- 
where, or  to  be  seen  only  in  dwarfed  forms — 
unequaled  harvests ;  wonderful  structures ;  in- 
exhaustible diamond-fields  ;  geysers  that  shoot 
their  airy  columns  beyond  sight;  waterfalls 
pouring  from  heaven  and  vested  in  perpetual 
rainbow;  forests  and  plains  of  boundless  green 
alive  with  plants  and  animals  of  starding  size, 
beauty  and  variety ;    rivers   that    sweep   thou- 


ILL  USTRA  TION  B  V  GREA  T  EXAMPLES.       203 

sands  of  miles  in  molten  gold  to  a  golden  sea ; 
mountains  whose  summits  are  stars.  What  a 
land !  Why  does  not  all  the  world  run  to 
see? 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  truth  of 
the  Bible-teachings,  there  can  be  but  one  opin- 
ion as  to  the  greatness  of  them.  See  some  of 
these  teachings. 

The  Doctrine  of  a  God. — There  is  a  Being 
who  is  the  sum  of  all  the  infinites ;  a  Being 
who  is  one  and  yet  three ;  a  Being  who  never 
began  and  will  never  end — self-existent,  from 
everlasting  to  everlasting,  found  in  whatever 
depth  of  the  past  or  future  to  which  our 
thought  with  its  fleetest  wings  may  carry  us, 
though  it  fly  for  never  so  many  millions  of 
years ;  a  Being  who  knows  absolutely  all 
things — from  whom  nothing  can  be  hid  by 
darkness  or  depth  or  walls  of  masonry  thick 
as  Babylon's,  or  the  labyrinths  of  hypocritical 
souls  where  they  hide  from  themselves — noth- 
ing present  or  past  or  future,  nothing  actual  or 
possible — nothing  from  the  path  of  a  planet  to 
that  of  a  microscopic  insect  with  its  myriads  of 
sub-orbits  of  thought  and  feeling ;  a  Being  who 
can  do  all  things  to  which  power  has  relation — 
whose  hand  can  in  a  moment  compress  and 
crush  into  nothinorness  all  nature  to  its  farthest 
outposts ;    a   Being  at  the  same  time  wearing 


204  ECCE    TERRA. 

this  crown  of  crowns,  that  he  is  as  vast  in 
righteousness  and  kindness  of  every  sort  as 
he  is  in  wisdom,  power  and  duration.  In  short, 
a  Being  who  is  the  sum  of  many  golden  oceans, 
each  of  which  is  shoreless  and  bottomless,  not 
only  to  our  sight,  but  to  his  own. 

What  a  wonder !  Above  all  men,  above  all 
giants  of  fable,  above  all  the  gods  of  the  na- 
tions before  whom  long  ages  have  trembled, 
above  the  mountain- tops  scaled  by  the  most 
soaring  thought,  rises  this  colossal  Perfec- 
tion. 

Doctrine  of  God  as  the  Author  of  Nature. — 
Out  of  nothing  he  made  the  substance  of  all 
things,  whether  material  or  spiritual.  This  sub- 
stance he  framed  into  the  mineral,  vegetable, 
animal  and  spiritual  kingdoms — into  worlds 
that  shine  on  hiorh  and  the  world  that  shines 
below ;  into  flocks  and  herds  and  swarms  of 
living  creatures  that  people  land  and  sea  and 
air;  into  trees  and  grains  and  fruits  and  flow- 
ers that  sustain  most  of  this  rovinor  life  with 
life  in  another  form,  only  less  brilliant ;  into  a 
host  of  useful  compounds  which  themselves 
have  no  life,  but  which  minister  as  beauty  or 
food  or  health  to  the  things  that  live  ;  count- 
less armies  of  exquisitely  framed  things,  by  the 
side  of  the  humblest  of  which  all  the  inven- 
tions of  men  deserve  no  notice  whatever — all 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        20$ 

these  were  brouoht  into  being  without  means, 
simply  by  a  stroke  of  will.  What  a  great  teach- 
ing is  this  ! 

Doctrine  of  God  as  Universal  Governor. — God 
sitteth  King  for  ever.  He  sitteth  King  every- 
where. He  does  according  to  his  will  in  the 
armies  of  heaven  and  among  the  inhabitants 
of  the  earth — helping  the  good,  hindering  the 
bad,  causing  the  wrath  of  man  to  praise  him, 
and  restraining  the  remainder  of  it.  All  things 
and  events  in  all  times  and  worlds  are  touched 
by  his  sceptre.  It  is  never  asleep.  It  is  never 
careless.  It  is  never  too  busy  nor  too  weary. 
It  is  never  hampered  by  want  of  agents  or  re- 
sources of  any  kind.  The  daily  path  and  ex- 
periences of  the  humblest  man  that  ever  crept 
along  earth's  lowest  vale  is  as  carefully  looked 
after  by  his  Maker  as  is  the  career  of  a  sover- 
eign or  a  sun.  Nay,  see  you  yonder  mote  zig- 
zagging through  the  sunbeam?  Not  a  motion, 
not  a  muscle,  of  that  living  speck  but  as  truly 
feels  the  pressure  of  his  will  as  do  the  radiant 
wine  and  orbit  of  an  archanorel. 

Tell  us  not  of  our  puppet  human  kings. 
Point  us  not  to  the  vigilant  and  far-reaching 
sway  of  your  Caesars  and  Charlemagnes  with 
their  hosts  of  officials,  police,  soldiers.  I  know 
of  none  that  astonishes  me — at  least  when  the 
stupendous,  all-comprehending  government  of 


206  ECCE    TERRA. 

God  is  before  me,  shooting  its  beams  like  a  ver- 
tical sun  till  every  part  of  every  object  is  g-ilded, 
but,  unlike  the  sun,  gilding  the  remotest  object 
as  freely  as  the  nighest.  To  this  govern- 
ment there  is  no  far  and  nigh,  no  small  and 
great. 

Doctrine  of  Mans  Immortal  Soul. — The  real 
man — the  intelligent,  self-conscious,  feeling,  pur- 
posing something  that  lives  within  the  dying  hu- 
man body,  but  is  not  of  it — never  dies.  What! 
do  you  really  mean  never?  Have  you  consid- 
ered what  that  great  word  means  ?  Yes,  I  mean 
a  real  Never — nothing  of  the  poetical  sort ;  if 
you  please,  Never  a  thousand  times  repeated. 
No  disease  nor  accident  has  any  power  over  the 
life  of  that  inner  man.  It  defies  and  easily  van- 
quishes all  the  ages.  This  is  true  of  the  hum- 
blest soul  as  well  as  of  the  hiehest.  Not  a  man 
to  be  found  on  all  the  breadth  of  the  earth  who 
is  not  heir  to  all  the  breadth  of  the  future.  We 
have  all  been  dipped  in  the  river  Styx,  and  are 
invulnerable  by  any  weapon  death  can  use. 
Wheeling  sword,  thrusting  spear,  roaring  can- 
non, famines,  pestilences,  earthquakes, — such 
thinors  cannot  even  come  nieh  our  citadel. 
Empires  may  sicken  and  die,  worlds  may  grow 
old,  stagger  on  their  shining  paths,  and  at  last 
disappear,  but  of  all  the  countless  human  souls 
at  any  time  on  the  earth  not  one  will  ever  drop 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        20/ 

out  of  being,  but  each  will  go  forward  endlessly 
in  full  possession  of  all  its  faculties. 

Is  it  not  wonderful  ?  In  view  of  such  a  fact 
how  much  is  a  man  worth  ?  How  much  can 
one  afford  to  take  for  himself? 

DoctiHne  of  Angels. — We  are  told  of  a  broad 
realm  of  spiritual  beings  gready  superior  to 
ourselves.  They  are  winged,  tireless,  death- 
less, and  can  come  and  go  without  being  no- 
ticed by  us.  They  are  intelligent  and  power- 
ful and  lofty  of  faculty  enough  to  be  called 
"  thrones,  principalities  and  powers."  Beyond 
counting  are  their  hosts.  Some  of  these  many 
and  great  beings  are  very  good,  others  very 
bad.  They  are  all  in  constant  communication 
with  our  world,  keenly  interested  in  its  affairs, 
acting  on  us  daily  and  powerfully  for  good  or 
ill.  The  good  angels  are  trying  mightily  to 
help  us,  the  bad  as  mightily  to  hurt  us.  Be- 
tween Satan  and  his  angels  on  the  one  side, 
and  the  good  angels  on  the  other,  it  is  keen 
strueele  and  war.  And  man  is  the  prize  to  be 
lost  or  won.  Whose  shall  we  be  ?  Satan,  the 
roaring  lion,  says,  Mine.  And  his  we  shall  be 
unless  we  bestir  ourselves  and  take  the  whole 
armor  of  God.  Full  of  subtlety,  full  of  malice, 
practiced  in  all  expedients  and  doctrines  of 
devils,  even  to  appearing  as  an  angel  of  light, 
campaigning  against  us    summer   and  winter, 


208  ECCE    TERRA. 

day  and  night,  the  prince  of  the  power  of  the 
air  and  ruler  of  the  darkness  of  this  world  will 
not  be  easily  foiled. 

What  a  great  war  it  is !  Naturally,  how  full 
of  peril  to  us!  What  mighty  enemies  we  have! 
Yes,  but  what  mighty  friends  also  !  Know  we 
of  any  profane  history  that  tells  of  wars  and 
warriors  like  these  unseen  ones — any  Wagrams 
or  Waterloos  where  a  sublimer  battle  rages  than 
this  where  the  sword  of  Michael  crosses  the 
sword  of  apostate  Lucifer? 

Doctrine  of  Individual  Responsibility. — Every 
man  shall  give  account  of  himself  to  God,  even 
for  every  idle  word,  and  indeed  for  smaller 
things  than  that.  God  trieth  the  reins.  Are 
you  a  king,  and  technically  above  law  ?  Are 
you  a  priest  and  professional  keeper  of  other 
men's  consciences  ?  Have  you  gotten  an  "  in- 
dependence," and  so  can  live  very  much  as  you 
please  ?  In  yonder  supreme  court  of  all,  the 
crown  and  the  crozier  and  Fortunatus's  purse 
will  all  be  sure  to  appear,  and  all  on  a  level 
with  the  spade  and  the  fustian.  Can  a  man, 
however  adroit,  manage  to  "  shirk  responsibil- 
ity "  there,  as  he  sometimes  tries  to  do  here  ? 
Can  one  say  to  another,  "  I'll  take  the  respon- 
sibility," and  actually  succeed  in  taking  it? 
Though  the  priests  cry,  "  His  blood  be  on  us 
and  on   our   children !"  will  that  clear   Pilate  ? 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       2O9 

Whatever  the  present  look  of  things,  and  how- 
ever long-  a  man  may  go  on  undisturbed,  he 
will  at  last  find  himself  in  front  of  the  tribunal 
from  which  there  is  no  appeal,  and  before  a 
Book  of  Remembrance  that  probes  all  the 
smallest  secrets  of  his  life.  Due  regard  will 
doubtless  be  had  to  all  alleviating  as  well  as 
enhancing  circumstances ;  but  let  him  see  to 
it:  '' It  shall  be  rendered  to  every  man  accord- 
ing as  his  work  shall  be." 

Is  not  this  a  great  doctrine — formidably 
great?  Was  the  illustrious  statesman  far  out 
of  the  way  when  he  said,  "  The  greatest 
thought  I  ever  had  was  that  of  my  in- 
dividual responsibility  to  God."  The  man 
who  stands  unawed  before  the  majesty  of 
mountains  and  oceans  and  skies  may  well 
uncover  before  that  of  those  heavenly  bal- 
ances into  which  surely  go  every  act  and 
thought  and  feeling  of  his  life — not  to  gratify 
an  idle  or  scientific  curiosity  on  the  part  of 
Heaven,  but  for  reward  or  punishment. 

Doctrine  of  Probation. — We  are  now  having 
our  only  probation.  Now  we  may  retrace 
wrong  steps.  Now  we  may  recast  the  founda- 
tions of  character.  Now  we  may  alter  totally 
our  attitude  and  relations  to  the  government 
of  God,  and  pass  quite  over  the  immense  in- 
terval from  disloyalty  to  loyalty,  from  condem- 

14 


210  ECCE    TERRA. 

nation  to  justification.  All  our  sins  may  be 
forgiven,  the  rudiments  of  every  virtue  gained. 
But  the  time  for  this  is  limited.  By  and  by, 
and  that  at  no  great  distance,  the  gracious  sun 
that  is  now  shining  will  set,  and  never  rise 
more.  Let  death  surprise  us  with  certain 
things  undone,  and,  lo,  the  transfer-books  of 
character  and  destiny  are  permanently  closed. 

This  is  something  to  think  of,  something 
great,  something  in  the  very  front  rank  of 
greatness.  One  chance — threescore  years  long, 
it  may  be — and  then  never  another.  O  land  of 
the  irreversible !  What  infinite  meaning  such 
a  thought  gives  to  our  life  in  this  world,  es- 
pecially in  view  of  the  Bible  doctrine  of  what 
the  irreversible  future  contains! 

Doctrine  of  a  Perfect  Law. — Look  at  the  Ten 
Commandments,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the 
Two  Commandments  on  which  hang  all  the 
Law  and  the  Prophets — at  the  filling  up  in  all 
the  Scriptures  of  this  outline  of  what  duty  God 
requires  of  man  !  The  Scripture  ethics  pro- 
fess to  be  perfect.  Are  they  not  so  ?  By  com- 
mon consent  of  friends  and  candid  foes  the 
Bible  morality,  translated  from  precept  into 
the  actual  life  and  character  of  a  man,  would 
make  him  all  we  could  wish.  Society  would 
only  need  to  be  made  up  of  such  men  to  meet 
our  highest  ideals. 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       211 

If  we  would  do  them  justice,  these  Bible 
ethics  are  not  to  be  contrasted  with  those  of 
the  best  of  our  unbelievers  in  Christian  lands  : 
these  men  have  unconsciously  absorbed  their 
principles  of  morals  from  the  biblical  atmo- 
sphere in  which  they  have  always  lived.  But 
they  should  be  contrasted  with  the  views  of 
right  and  wrong  prevailing  when  and  where 
the  Scriptures  were  written.  Considering  the 
ages  and  countries  out  of  which  they  came, 
they  are  simply  wonderful  for  their  compre- 
hensiveness, purity  and  justice — at  least  as 
wonderful  as  it  would  be  for  snowy  Cauca- 
sians to  have  Nubians  for  parents.  To  the 
best  of  us  they  say,  as  out  of  heaven,  ''Come 
up  hither." 

Docbdne  of  Infinite  Sanctions. — A  world  of 
glory,  on  the  paindng  of  which  the  imagination 
may  lay  out  all  its  powers,  and  yet  feel  that  the 
picture  falls  immensely  short  of  the  reality.  A 
world  of  darkness,  of  which  as  much  can  be 
said.  Both  of  these  worlds  everlasting  homes 
to  those  once  entering  them — the  one  the 
sure  recompense  of  God's  friends  in  this 
world,  the  other  the  sure  recompense  of  his 
enemies! 

By  the  side  of  these  two  as  yet  invisible 
worlds  all  that  we  see  in  the  nightly  sky  are 
of  no  consequence.    Such  is  the  instant  thought 


212  ECCE    TERRA. 

of  every  reasonable  man.  To  show  the  great- 
ness of  some  things  requires  explanation  and 
argument :  we  have  to  put  the  matter  in  this 
light  and  In  that,  go  round  it  with  our  measur- 
ing-rod as  did  the  angel  about  the  celestial 
city  ;  but  such  worlds  of  retribution  as  heaven 
and  hell  need  only  to  be  glanced  at,  and,  lo, 
all  other  worlds  disappear.  Nothing  remains 
in  the  w^asted  vault  but  two  immeasurable 
orbs. 

Doctrine  of  a  Divine  Incarnation,  Atonement 
and  Mediators Jiip. — To  make  heaven  possible 
to  all  men,  however  sinful,  the  Son  of  God  him- 
self became  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us  many 
years,  contradicted  of  sinners,  treading  thorny 
paths  with  bare  feet,  and  at  last,  by  sacrificial 
dying  agonies,  atoning  for  sin,  and  then  re- 
turning to  the  skies  as  official  Mediator  for 
mankind. 

What  a  doctrine  is  this !  An  unspeakable 
thing  from  the  standpoint  of  nature.  No  doubt 
the  angels,  leaning  over  the  celestial  battle- 
ments, wondered  and  wondered  as  the  sacred 
tragedy  went  forward.     Let  us  wonder  also. 

Doctri7ie  of  the  Holy  Spirit. — Convincing  the 
world  of  sin,  of  righteousness  and  of  judgment; 
silently  yet  mightily  persuading  in  all  hearts  to 
right  ways;  anointing  both  the  truth  and  seeing 
eyes  with  power;    reversing  the  poles   of  life 


IL  L  US  TRA  TION  B  V  GREA  T  EX  A  MFLES.        2 1 3 

and  character  to  consenting  souls ;  setting  up 
the  whole  man  on  new  moral  foundations,  and 
these  of  the  whitest  sculpture-marble,  and 
thence  proceeding  to  carry  up  by  degrees  a 
glorious  Christian  temple,  into  which,  as  wall 
or  column  or  buttress  or  some  other  shining 
part,  every  virtue  enters,  and  whose  summit 
is  white  with  heaven  ! 

This  work  of  regenerating  and  sanctifying 
souls  is  even  more  grand  and  consequential 
than  the  work  of  the  creation.  It  is  a  necessity 
— not  in  that  poor  and  low  sense  in  which  we 
sometimes  use  the  word,  but  in  the  very  high- 
est. Without  It  what  would  have  become  of  us, 
fallen,  feeble,  much-tempted  creatures  as  we 
are  !  With  such  free  and  mighty  helps  what 
heights  are  possible  to  us  !  It  seems  that  for 
our  highest  interests  the  almightiness  of  God 
is  at  our  service.     Amazing  privilege  ! 

Doctrine  of  Exceeding  Promises — "  exceeding 
great  and  precious  promises,"  as  the  Bible  calls 
them.  Such  as  that  God  will  give  his  Holy 
Spirit  freely  to  all  who  ask  him  ;  that  he  will 
allow  access  to  himself,  at  all  times  and  for  all 
sorts  of  things  not  sinful  in  themselves,  to  the 
meanest  human  being  who  wishes  his  help; 
that  he  will  never  suffer  any  hostile  powers 
to  pluck  his  people  out  of  his  hand  and  finally 
ruin   them  ;   that  all   things  shall  work  together 


214  ECCE    TERRA. 

for  good  to  those  who  love  God ;  that  the 
gates  of  hell  shall  not  finally  prevail  against 
his  Church. 

No  such  promises  are  found  elsewhere. 
They  have  made  many  weak  and  fainting 
ones  sublimely  strong.  They  have  set  stars, 
moon,  sun  in  many  a  black  firmament.  In 
many  a  desperate  field  they  have  turned  the 
tide  of  battle  in  favor  of  truth  and  righteous- 
ness, and  are,  in  fact,  the  sinews  of  our  spirit- 
ual war  and  the  banner  which  God  gives  to 
them  who  fear  him. 

Doctrines  of  inspiration,  miracles  and  sub- 
lime vistas  of  outlook  through  the  history  of 
the  world — vistas  reaching  on  the  one  hand 
away  back  to  the  world's  very  beginning,  and 
on  the  other  away  down  to  the  world's  very 
end;  including  a  golden  age,  the  resurrection 
of  the  dead,  the  general  judgment  and  the 
earth   in   flames ! 

The  teaching  is  that  a  divine  Influence  so 
guided  the  pens  of  all  the  Bible-writers  as  to 
secure  its  being  an  infallible  and  complete  rule 
of  religious  faith  and  practice.  It  gives  us  no 
error,  and  it  gives  us  all  needed  truth  in  the 
best  way.  Further,  it  causes  to  pass  before  us 
in  magnificent  procession  a  long  series  of  di- 
vine apparitions,  ministries,  signs  and  wonders, 
extending  through  the  whole  history  of  man, 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       21 5 

and  In  the  presence  of  whose  gigantic  and 
radiant  forms  all  the  events  of  common  history 
are  sapless  trifles.  And  what  a  glorious  stretch 
of  view  it  is,  from  this  PIsgah  away  back  untold 
distances  to  the  beginning  when  God  made  the 
heavens  and  the  earth,  and  away  down  in  the 
opposite  direction  untold  distances,  until  at  the 
end  of  the  vista  we  see  new  heavens  and  a  new 
earth ! 

Now  put  these  great  teachings  of  the  Bible 
together  so  that  they  may  be  commanded  by  a 
single  view.  Have  we  not,  indeed,  a  wonder- 
land ?  Where  is  another  book  that  offers  so 
many  ideas  that  strain  our  powers  of  concep- 
tion ?  Oriental  fiction,  In  its  wildest  imagin- 
ings, has  never  approached  in  strangeness  and 
sublimity  this  glorious  landscape.  What  are 
trees  loaded  with  many-colored  jewels,  moun- 
tains borne  aloft  in  the  hands  of  genii,  men 
flashed  through  the  air  on  magical  carpets, 
compared  with  one  Infinite  personal  God,  his 
universal  government,  responsibility  to  him,  a 
lost  race.  Immortal  souls  redeemed,  God  mani- 
fest In  the  flesh,  heaven  and  hell,  atonement  and 
regeneration  and  sanctificatlon,  the  Mosaic  and 
Christian  miracles,  and  the  glories  of  the  world's 
last  day?  Such  things  are  absolutely  full  of 
the  elements  of  amazement  and  awe.  Many  a 
strong  man  has  been  quite  overwhelmed  by  a 


2l6  ECCE    TERRA. 

sense  of  their  majesty.  They  are  of  infinite 
consequence  to  ever}^body — have  had,  and  are 
destined  to  have  still  more,  a  wonderful  influ- 
ence on  the  world.  I  have  walked  through 
many  a  famed  gallery  of  the  Old  World  which 
great  artists  have  glorified  with  their  genius, 
but  never  with  such  abashed  step  and  wonder- 
ing heart  as  belong  to  any  reasonable  man  as 
he  passes  through  this  divine  gallery  of  paint- 
ings and  sculptures  called  the  Bible,  of  which 
God  is  both  the  artist  and  collector. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  this  Book  which  is 
so  great  in  its  teachings  should  be  found  great 
in  many  other  particulars.  Its  various  parts 
are  far  above  the  level  of  the  various  times  in 
which  they  appeared.  Among  books  it  has  no 
peer  in  the  amount  and  quality  of  the  influence 
it  has  exerted  and  is  still  exerting.  It  is  a  great 
educational  institution,  doing  more  to  educate 
the  public  heart,  conscience,  and  even  intellect, 
than  any  other  teacher  that  has  ever  appeared. 
That  endeavor  to  take  in  and  do  justice  to  its 
great  thoughts  which  all  Bible-readers  are  daily 
put  upon  is  itself  a  liberal  education.  Is  Homer 
with  the  art-galleries  of  his  great  epics,  or  some 
natural  science  with  its  roomy  halls  and  muse- 
ums of  facts  and  laws,  properly  called  an  edu- 
cational institution,  and  shall  we  deny  the  name 
to  that  castellated  group  of  templed  and  pala- 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        21/ 

tial  thoughts  and  foundations  which  we  call  the 
Bible  ? 

No  other  such  reformer  is  known  ;  no  other 
such  conservator  of  rights,  properties,  order, 
law.  It  does  more  to  restrain  men  from  the 
bad  than  all  the  prisons,  polices  and  armies 
that  ever  frowned ;  more  to  stress  them  toward 
the  good  than  all  the  philosophies,  natural  re- 
ligions and  natural  rewards  of  virtue  that  ever 

o 

smiled  and  beckoned  toward  that  goddess.  We 
speak  of  the  world's  great  powers  !  The  first 
among  them  is  not  Russia,  nor  Great  Britain 
with  its  mighty  horizons  from  sunset  to  sunset, 
but  it  is  that  vaster  empire  of  the  Book,  with 
its  wonderful  adaptation  to  all  times  and  peo- 
ples, its  mountainous  stability  against  all  at- 
tacks, its  vast  uplifting  power,  its  current  rap- 
id conquests  in  many  lands,  that  is  to-day  the 
mightiest  governor  and  conqueror  on  the  face 
of  the  earth.  So  broad  and  strong  and  right- 
ful and  righteous  and  useful  and  promising  for 
the  world's  future,  we  look  all  the  lands  through 
in  vain  in  search  of  its  fellow. 

That  this  Book,  with  its  various  great  feat- 
ures, has  God  for  its  author  I  have  endeavored 
to  show  in  another  volume,  and  have  steadily 
assumed  from  the  beginning  of  the  present 
work.  But  I  have  not  yet  distinctly  called  at- 
tention to  the  exceeding  number,  variety  and 


2l8  ECCE    TERRA. 

greatness  of  the  divine  actions  involved  in  the 
Scriptures. 

The  Bible  is  really  a  composite  of  many  rev- 
elations, made  at  different  times,  through  differ- 
ent  persons,  over  a  stretch  of  many  centuries, 
and  so  involving-  a  great  many  distinct  divine 
actions.  Scarcely  a  single  sacred  penman, 
moreover,  did  his  work  at  a  sitting,  but  at 
intervals  more  or  less  long ;  and  sometimes 
these  intervals  were  of  very  great  length. 
For  example,  the  Psalms  of  David  are  known 
to  have  been  composed  in  a  long  series,  the 
terms  of  which  were  interspaced  sometimes  by 
many  years.  During  all  this  time  the  divine 
inspiration  was  either  continuous,  or,  as  it  is 
more  reasonable  to  suppose,  came  upon  the 
writers  in  distinct  waves  as  it  was  needed  and 
used,  thus  making  a  long  series  of  divine  ac- 
tions. 

The  divine  action  in  inspiring  the  sacred 
writers  was  very  various.  They  were  inspired 
to  write  history,  biography,  poetry  in  many 
forms,  proverbs,  prophecy,  letters,  and  even 
what  may  be  called  philosophy.  Facts  and 
principles  before  dimly  seen  were  made  clearer; 
new  facts  and  doctrines,  otherwise  inaccessible 
to  us,  were  revealed ;  all  that  we  need  to  know 
religiously  was  communicated ;  all  error  in  doc- 
trine and  fact  was  precluded ;  even  the  words 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       219 

of  Scripture  and  their  arrangement,  so  far  as 
these  might  affect  the  value  of  the  revelation, 
were  divinely  suggested ;  in  short,  the  Book 
was  made  by  a  multitude  of  distinct  and  va- 
rious divine  actions  an  infallible  and  complete 
rule  of  religious  faith  and  practice  for  all  men 
—  not  only  far  superior  to  every  other  rule 
known  to  us,  but,  all  things  considered,  a  per- 
fect rule.  We  are  also  to  believe  that  from 
the  beeinninor  of  the  Canon  till  now  a  Provi- 
dence  has  watched  over  it,  and  not  only  kept 
it  in  existence,  but  kept  it  from  all  serious  cor- 
ruption in  passing  through  many  hands  and  rude 
and  troubled  times ;  that  is,  kept  it  from  all 
changes  that  would  have  marred  its  character 
as  a  religious  rule  for  such  beings  as  men ;  also, 
that  during  all  this  time  God  has  been  person- 
ally active  in  interpreting  the  Book,  especially  to 
all  praying  souls,  ''opening  the  understanding  to 
understand  the  Scriptures,"  and  applying  them 
as  "the  sword  of  the  Spirit"  to  all  classes.  "Lo, 
I  am  with  you  alway,  even  to  the  end  of  the 
world,"  means  at  least  a  steady  divine  co-opera- 
tion with  ministers  of  the  word  from  age  to  age. 
Such  is  the  testimony  which  the  Bible  gives 
of  itself.  Certainly  a  great  testimony.  The 
outward  seeming  of  the  Book  is  that  of  any 
other  book.  No  aureole  plays  about  it;  the 
characters  within  are  such  as  mere  types  and 


220  ECCE    TERRA. 

ink  can  give  ;  no  radiant  hand  let  down  from 
heaven  visibly  passes  it  from  house  to  house 
and  from  person  to  person  ;  and  yet  it  is  one 
of  the  greatest  divine  works  visible  in  all  the 
earth.  It  contains  within  itself  an  army  of  di- 
vine actions.  It  is  environed  and  carried  for- 
ward by  an  army  of  divine  auxiliaries.  On  its 
path  among  men  is  gathered  more  divine  in- 
terest and  a  greater  measure  and  variety  of 
divine  forces  than  gather  about  the  orbits  of 
planets  and  suns.  As  the  chariot  in  which 
salvation  rides  to  a  lost  race  ;  as  the  pillar  that 
shows  the  journeying  nations  how  to  cross  the 
"great  and  terdble  wilderness;"  as  the  perma- 
nent yet  moving  Shekinah  for  Jews  and  Gen- 
tiles, whence  the  voice  of  the  Lord  speaks  in- 
fallible oracles  ;  as  the  great  lens  which  brings 
to  a  brilliant  focus  far  more  than  the  scattered 
rays  of  tradition,  conscience,  reason  and  nature, 
— it  really  has  no  fellow  among  all  the  useful  and 
precious  things  that  meet  our  eyes  as  they  go 
ranging  through  the  world.  This  is  claimed  of 
several  books — is  true  for  only  one.  And  this 
one  is  not  the  Zendavesta,  nor  the  Vedas,  nor 
the  Koran,  nor  some  other  on  which  is  written 
the  name  of  Confucius  or  Mormon  or  Sweden- 
borg — purely  human  the  best  of  them,  insane 
or  diabolical  the  worst  of  them :  it  is  the  Book 
that  incarnates  the  Christian  religion.    A  divine 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.         221 

pulse  is  In  every  verse,  and  every  verse  Is  being 
charioted  toward  its  own  particular  uses  by  a 
discriminatino:  Providence  that  makes  no  mis- 
takes. 

What  a  Book !  It  is  a  quiver  full  of  golden 
arrows  that  God  himself  has  wrought,  and 
which  his  eye  and  hand  are  sending  out  to 
their  various  destinations  more  critically  than 
ever  did  consummate  Tell  poise  and  strain 
shaft  on  string.  It  is  a  ship  sailing  toward  us 
out  of  the  dawn,  embosomed  in  a  phosphores- 
cent ocean,  driven  steadily  on  to  its  port  by 
sacred  gales  and  currents,  and  picking  up  on 
this  hand  and  on  that  wrecked  mariners  as  it 
ploughs  its  golden  furrow. 

lo.  Moral  Wonders. 
All  men  now  are  conscious  of  a  certain 
working  within  them  in  opposition  to  courses 
of  sin  and  folly.  Usually  this  opposition  is  felt 
for  years.  Sometimes  it  strengthens  Into  a 
strong  wrestling,  and  the  soul  Is  strained  and 
bruised  and  torn  as  If  at  the  hands  of  a  glad- 
iator. We  may  not  say  that  no  natural  forces 
are  concerned  in  this  holy  gladiatorship — we 
know  the  contrary — but  yet  It  Is  certain  that 
just  this  sort  of  work  is  attributed  in  the  Bible 
to  God.  He  strove  with  the  antediluvians, 
until  he  at  last  said,  "  My  Spirit  shall   not  al- 


222  ECCE    TERRA. 

ways  Strive  with  man."  He  strove  with  the 
Israelites  in  all  their  generations,  until  Stephen 
said,  "  Ye  do  always  resist  the  Holy  Ghost ;  as 
your  fathers  did,  so  do  ye."  And  from  that 
time  till  now  the  striving-  has  continued  with 
the  whole  world,  for  the  Saviour  says,  "  He 
will  reprove  the  world  of  sin,  of  righteousness 
and  of  judgment."  Such  passages  have  com- 
pelled the  current  belief  of  Christians  that, 
even  as  good  men  never  content  themselves 
with  indirect  and  occasional  resistance  of 
wrong  courses  in  others,  but  also,  according 
to  their  power,  act  directly  and  habitually  for 
that  purpose,  so  no  doubt  the  striving  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  with  wrong  in  every  man  and  in 
every  age  includes  one  that  is  personal  and 
habitual — all  the  more  certainly  because  God, 
unlike  man,  is  not  to  be  wearied  or  embar- 
rassed by  any  amount  or  variety  of  action. 

In  the  case  of  many  persons  these  divine 
strivings  issue  in  another  divine  work — viz. 
regeneration.  Character  and  life  are  radically 
changed.  The  sinner  finds  himself  penitent 
and  believing.  Somehow,  he  thinks  different- 
ly, feels  differently,  acts  differently.  He  has 
come  into  hearty  sympathy  with  the  divine 
government,  and  is  resolute  to  obey  its  laws 
and  promote  its  ends.  And  yet  only  a  few 
hours  ago  it  was  so  different — perhaps  fiercely 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       223 

and  almost  hopelessly  different.  But  now  "old 
things  have  passed  away;  behold,  all  things 
have  become  new." 

A  new  thing  under  the  sun  ?  By  no  means. 
Such  stars  have  always  been  coming  out  in  the 
jet  of  our  sky.  Adam  and  Eve,  we  hope,  had 
that  starry  experience.  We  know  that  Abel 
had  it.  And,  from  that  first  martyr  down- 
ward, good  men  have  never  been  totally  want- 
ing— patriarchs,  prophets,  apostles,  saints,  of 
whom  time  would  fail  me  to  tell — and  each  of 
these  men  became  good  by  experiencing,  once 
upon  a  time,  just  that  moral  revolution  of  which 
I  have  spoken.  And  now  many  thousands  of 
such  revolutions  occur  every  year.  The  thou- 
sands will  grow  to  millions  as  the  years  roll 
on  kindling  wheels  through  dawn  and  sunrise 
toward  the  perfect  day.  The  noon  itself  will 
be  made  by  these  starry  experiences  becoming 
so  closely  packed  together  as  to  make  a  sun. 

Whence  are  these,  from  first  to  last,  innu- 
merable regenerations  ?  Christians  have  but 
one  answer.  They  are  compelled  to  uniform- 
ity by  the  clear  and  manifold  Scripture  utter- 
ances. Faith  is  the  gift  of  God.  Jesus  is  the 
author,  as  well  as  finisher,  of  it.  "  Create 
within  me  a  clean  heart,  O  God,  and  renew  a 
right  spirit  within  me,"  says  David.  Christians 
are  the  "  wheat  sown  by  the  great  Sower — his 


224  ECCE    TERRA. 

workmanship,  created  anew  in  Christ  Jesus, 
born  of  the  Spirit,  renewed  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 
That  such  lano^ua<xe  means  a  real  divine  action, 
and  one  of  the  most  commanding  sort,  no  rea- 
sonable man  can  doubt,  especially  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  we  are  directed  to  pray  for  the 
conversion  of  men. 

In  addition  to  these  divine  acts  for  the  con- 
version of  men  there  are  also  others  for  their 
saiictification.  Some  men  grow  in  grace.  They 
go  from  strength  to  strength.  The  dawn  shines 
more  and  more  toward  the  perfect  day.  Their 
faith  gets  stronger,  their  conscientiousness  deep- 
ens; their  obedience  gradually  takes  on  the  ease 
and  fixedness  of  habit.  The  young  banyan  wi- 
dens and  heightens,  sends  down  rootlets  from 
every  branch,  makes  filial  stems  on  every  hand, 
promises  in  time  to  become  a  pillared  temple  of 
the  forest.  How  many  forms  of  virtue  belong 
to  a  single  finished  Christian  character !  and 
how  many  increments  each  of  these  takes  on 
in  the  course  of  years  under  as  many  impulses 
of  the  growth-making  forces !  How  many  of 
these  complex,  banyan-like  sanctifications  in 
the  world,  from  first  to  last,  between  Adam 
on  the  one  hand  and  the  Church  universal  in 
its  white  millennial  robes  on  the  other ! 

The  Bible  being  witness,  all  the  virtues  that 
have  ever  adorned  the  world ;  all  the  improve- 


ILLUSTRATlOh'    BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        22  5 

ments  made  in  these  virtues,  even  such  as  men 
have  wrought  at  as  laboriously  as  ever  did  lap- 
idary at  cutting  and  polishing  and  setting  a 
gem  ;  all  the  finished  jewels  of  character  that 
will  finally  be  found  flashing  on  the  persons  of 
that  multitude  that  no  man  can  number  as  they 
pass  through  the  gates  into  the  city — must  be 
credited  to  God.  They  are  "fruits  of  the  Spirit." 
**My  Father  is  the  husbandman,"  and  he  prunes 
and  "purges  the  tree  that  it  may  bring  forth 
more  fruit."  "Through  sanctification  of  the 
Spirit;"  "changed  into  the  same  image  from 
glory  to  glory  as  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  ;" 
"  knowing  that  it  is  God  that  worketh  in  you  to 
w^ill  and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure," — how  out- 
spoken and  decisive  are  these  gleams  of  the  bib- 
lical philosophy!  So  the  whole  Christian  Church 
has  felt  constrained  to  allow  that  in  the  "  every 
good  and  perfect  gift  that  is  from  above"  is  this 
supreme  gift  of  sanctification — that,  inspiring, 
directing  and  working  with  the  human  lapidary 
as  he  toils  away  on  the  precious  stone  to  fit  it 
for  a  crown,  there  is  another  Hand,  so  much 
more  skillful,  diligent  and  efficient  than  his 
own  that  we  are  bound  to  say,  "Thou,  O 
Lord,  hast  wrought  all  our  work  in  us." 

Prayer  in  its  very  nature  is  largely  an  appeal 
to  God  to  do  something.  Such  appeals  have 
been  made  from  the  beo-innine.  •  From  the  be- 

15 


226  ECCE    TERRA. 

ginning  God  has  invited  them,  encouraged  them 
by  great  promises,  put  on  record  many  brilHant 
examples  of  their  success  in  calhng  forth  divine 
activity ;  so  that  every  behever  knows,  inde- 
pendently of  observation,  that  coundess  millions 
of  petitions  from  devout  men  for  objects  known 
to  be  always  and  everywhere  agreeable  to  the 
divine  will  and  consistent  to  be  granted  (for 
example,  spiritual  blessings  for  the  pedtioner 
himself)  have  been  answered  by  appropriate 
movements  of  divine  power  all  adown  the  ages. 
But  there  are  many  cases  in  which  prayers  are 
so  circumstantially  fulfilled  before  our  eyes  that 
we  know,  aside  from  Scripture,  that  the  divine 
Hand  must  have  been  concerned  in  them.  The 
occasional  experience  of  almost  every  praying 
man,  the  records  of  noted  prayer-meedngs,  and 
especially  the  continuous  histories  of  such  Chris- 
tian institutions  as  Muller's  at  Bristol,  England, 
where  daily  bread  (none  too  little  and  none  too 
much)  for  thousands  is  gotten  by  daily  prayer, 
are  witnesses.  Could  we  collect  all  the  exam- 
ples of  such  circumstantially  fulfilled  prayer  as 
no  doctrine  of  chances  or  of  blind  law  can  ex- 
plain that  occur  in  a  single  year  all  over  Chris- 
tendom, they  would  be  found  to  make  a  very 
great  total — something  not  easily  counted,  some- 
thing to  be  astonished  at — and  such  have  been 
occurring  every  year,  not  to   say  every  hour, 


ILLUSTRATION  BY   GREAT   EXAMPLES.        227 

since  man  began,  sometimes  in  constellations. 
As  the  conditions  of  acceptable  prayer  will  be 
more  and  more  freely  supplied  as  the  world 
gees  on  toward  its  Golden  Age,  these  brilliant 
examples  will  go  on  multiplying,  till  at  last  the 
earth  is  ablaze  with  the  time  when  '*  it  shall 
come  to  pass  that  before  they  call  I  will  answ^er, 
and  while  they  are  yet  speaking  I  will  hear." 

But  some  one  reminds  us  that  there  is  a 
theory  which  provides  for  answers  to  prayer 
— as  well  as  for  an  infinity  of  other  things — 
by  only  a  single  divine  action.  At  the  creation, 
God,  contemplating  all  the  events  which  both 
could  and  should  be,  so  framed  the  system  of 
nature  that,  without  any  further  action  from 
him,  it  would  itself  produce  these  events  at 
the  proper  time  and  place.  One  comprehen- 
sive act  at  the  beginning  made  unnecessary 
any  further  divine  action.  So  that  from  then 
till  now  God  has  not  once  lifted  his  hand. 

According  to  this  notion,  no  doubt,  the  di- 
vine government  would  be  just  as  real  and 
present  as  if  a  distinct  divine  action  were  im- 
mediately connected  with  each  event.  If  Dom 
Pedro,  emperor  of  Brazil,  proposes  to  travel 
for  a  year  In  foreign  countries,  and  succeeds 
in  making  arrangements  in  advance  by  which, 
during  that  time,  all  the  needs  of  the  empire 
v^ill  be  as  well  met  as  if  he  had  remained  at 


228  ECCE    TERRA. 

home  and  dally  attended  to  all  the  details  of 
kingly  work,  his  government  by  no  means 
ceases  when  he  embarks.  But  is  this  really 
the  way  in  which  God  governs  ?  Then  he 
has  made  an  alter  ego.  Then  mere  nature 
wrought  all  the  miracles  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  including  his  descent  on  Sinai  and 
his  greater  descent  on  Calvary.  Then  it  is  pos- 
sible for  God  to  make  a  system  of  second  causes 
that  can  go  on  untended  for  ages,  doing  the 
entire  work  of  Deity,  save  perhaps  that  of 
creating ;  and  we  have  but  to  suppose  such  a 
system  eternal  (just  as  easy  a  supposition  as 
that  of  an  eternal  God)  to  get  rid  of  all  philo- 
sophic need  of  a  God ;  nay,  in  such  a  case  one 
is  forbidden  by  the  inductive  philosophy  to  ex- 
plain such  a  nature  by  the  hypothesis  of  a  God. 
Of  course  the  whole  drift  of  Scripture  is 
against  this  clock-winding  scheme.  Plainly, 
it  never  once  entered  the  thought  of  the  sacred 
writers,  unless  as  a  part  of  the  "  oppositions  of 
science,  falsely  so  called."  The  impression  left 
on  the  most  careful  as  well  as  the  most  careless 
reader  of  the  Bible  is  that  nature  is  not  a  ma- 
chine so  wisely  built  that  it  can  go  on  of  itself, 
turning  out  as  good  results  as  both  nature  and 
the  supernatural  together  could  do,  but  that  God 
is  continually  active  in  the  system,  meeting  its 
current  needs   by  the   current  outgoes  of  his 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        229 

watchful  almicrhtiness.     He  never  embarks  for 

o 

foreign  parts.      He  never  puts  a  viceroy  Into 
his  throne. 

This  conception  of  the  divine  government  is 
far  more  useful  than  the  other,  as  it  brings  God 
nearer  our  thought  and  life,  and  Is  therefore  pre- 
sumably correct;  especially  as  it  is  just  as  easy 
for  an  infinite  Being  to  act  daily,  and  even  mo- 
mently, as  to  act  once  In  a  million  of  years. 

II.  Miracles. 

In  addition  to  the  divine  actions  already  men- 
tioned, there  have  been  certain  others  In  con- 
nection with  events,  for  the  present  sufficiently 
described  by  the  name  of  the  "  Scripture  Mir- 
acles." 

That  God  has,  from  time  to  time,  put  forth 
his  hand  to  produce  such  miracles  Is  far  from 
being  Incredible,  apart  from  revelation.  The 
air  of  all  times  and  countries  is  quick  with 
rumors  of  supernatural  occurrences.  We 
meet  everywhere  echoes  which  might  well 
have  been  born  of  the  most  wonderful  voices, 
everywhere  odors  which  might  well  have  come 
from  the  distant  swaying  of  royal  robes. 

Nay,  as  we  have  seen,  there  are  events  tak- 
ing place  even  now  which,  to  say  the  least,  It 
is  very  hard  to  bring  clearly  within  the  class  of 
the  purely  natural.     Are  we  never  at  a  loss  to 


230  ECCE    TERRA. 

see  how  mere  animal  parentage  can  account 
for  the  bodies  and  souls  that  are  constantly 
being  born,  to  see  how  it  is  possible  for  any- 
thing in  the  way  of  mere  nature  to  produce  its 
own  equal  ?  Is  there  not  very  considerable 
reason  for  believing  that  the  long  stretch  of 
organic  life  on  our  globe  has  been  many  times 
broken  and  as  many  times  renewed  by  that 
greatest  of  marvels,  a  sudden  creation  ? 

And,  then,  what  a  fitting  basis  would  miracles 
be  to  such  a  system  of  religion  as  the  biblical ! 
A  grand  palace  should  have  a  grand  founda- 
tion, a  great  monarch  should  be  preceded  by 
no  common  herald.  Whatever  else  may  be  de- 
nied as  to  the  religion  of  the  Bible,  it  cannot 
be  denied  that  it  is  great.  It  seeks  the  great- 
est objects,  works  by  the  greatest  means,  and 
claims  some  of  the  greatest  ideas  and  literature 
and  effects  the  world  ever  saw.  Its  purpose  is 
the  salvation  of  mankind.  It  offers  to  secure 
this  purpose  by  a  divine  atonement  and  by  a 
constant  miracle  of  renewal  and  sanctification 
in  the  hearts  of  men  through  the  Holy  Spirit. 
It  would  be  a  fitness — such  a  fitness  as  nature 
loves,  and  such  as  we  intuitively  recognize  as 
belonging  to  truth — were  this  great  temple 
fronted  with  a  porch  of  signs  and  wonders. 
It  would  be  a  graceful  harmony — like  the  ac- 
cords in  music  or  the  symmetries  of  physical 


JLLUSTRATIOM  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        23  I 

beauty — were  this  pure  and  lofty  faith  of  Christ- 
endom found  poising  itself,  in  part  at  least,  on 
such  a  foundation  of  great  and  precious  stones 
as  the  marvels  that  transcend  nature. 

But  some  are  disposed  to  object.  They  tell 
us  that  such  marvels  have  never  been  needed, 
and  so  have  never  occurred ;  that  an  infinite 
Being  could  have  so  made  the  scheme  of  things 
as  to  secure  all  his  ends  by  natural  forces  and 
laws  alone ;  that  He  who  is  admitted  to  have 
secured  by  such  means  a  large  part  of  his  ends 
could,  with  omnipotence  and  omniscience  to 
help  him,  have  managed  to  secure  the  remain- 
der. We  happen,  however,  to  know  that  not 
even  an  infinite  Being  can  work  impossibilities 
in  the  nature  of  things,  and  that  among  these 
impossibles  may  well  be  that  of  securing  from 
mere  nature  as  complete  results  as  might  come 
from  nature  and  the  supernatural  together. 

They  tell  us  that  such  marvels,  in  their  very 
nature,  are  amendments — mere  supplements 
and  patches  to  eke  out  a  faulty  system — at- 
tempts to  correct  what  is  too  long  or  too  short, 
too  fast  or  too  slow,  too  weak  or  too  strong ; 
in  short,  such  a  thing  as  could  never  have  come 
from  a  perfect  Being.  I  happen,  however,  to 
know  that  great  deeds  are  not  necessarily 
afterthoughts.  They  may  enter  into  the  orig- 
inal plan  of  their  author  with  all  smaller  mat- 


232  ECCE    TERRA. 

ters.  And  why  may  not  such  marvels  as  I 
have  mentioned  have  entered  into  a  great 
primal  plan  of  creation  which  was  never  for 
a  moment  supposed  to  be  complete  without 
them  ?  In  their  nature  they  are  no  more 
amendments  than  a  pendulum  is  an  amend- 
ment to  a  clock  or  a  roof  to  a  house.  Did 
not  the  maker  from  the  first  propose  the 
whole  ? 

Above  aN,  they  tell  us  that  such  events  are 
contrary  to  experience.  I  happen,  however,  to 
know  some  things  in  the  way  of  science  that 
make  light  of  such  an  objection.  Grant  that 
such  events  are  aside  not  only  from  our  own 
personal  experience,  but  also  from  that  of  all 
our  predecessors  for  some  thousands  of  years. 
What  then  ?  Does  it  follow  that  they  have 
never  occurred,  or  even  that  they  cannot  be 
known  with  scientific  sureness  to  have  occur- 
red ?  Nothing  of  the  sort.  We  certainly  know 
of  real  geological  wonders  which  have  never 
once  been  observed  actually  occurring  during 
the  entire  history  of  our  race  thus  far ;  we  cer- 
tainly know  of  real  astronomical  wonders  sure 
to  occur  after  many  ages,  but  of  which  all  previ- 
ous human  history  will  not  have  seen  a  solitary 
instance,  but  rather  constant  facts  of  directly 
the  opposite  bearing.  For  example,  many  ages 
hence  the  moon  will  begin  to  recede  from  the 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       233 

earth.  That  will  be  an  event  totally  unprece- 
dented in  the  history  of  mankind.  Nay,  it  will 
be  an  event  directly  the  opposite  of  what  has 
always  been  occurring.  From  long  before  man, 
down  to  that  remote  future,  the  moon,  instead 
of  retreating  from  the  earth,  will  have  been 
steadily  approaching  it ;  and  were  the  race  of 
that  distant  time  to  reason  merely  from  what 
has  been  within  its  time  to  what  will  be  on  the 
morrow,  it  would  confidently  say  that  the  satel- 
lite will  be  still  approaching.  But  it  would  be 
a  mistake.  On  that  very  morrow  the  lunar 
orbit  will  begin  to  expand — will  do  a  thing 
which  no  man  in  all  the  aees  has  ever  observ- 
ed  it  doing,  and,  what  is  more,  will  do  a  thing 
which,  with  the  help  of  a  little  astronomy,  those 
men  might  have  foreknown  with  supreme  cer- 
tainty. We  foreknow  it  with  supreme  certainty 
to-day,  thanks  to  the  great  observations  of  Hal- 
ley  and  the  greater  mathematics  of  La  Place. 

Now,  what  neither  science  nor  tradition  nor 
the  fitness  of  thines  forbids  us  to  believe  in 
we  find  imposed  on  our  faith  by  the  Scriptures. 
They  tell  us  that  the  Hebrews  saw  ten  general 
plagues  sent  on  Egypt  through  the  rod  of 
Moses ;  that  by  it  a  way  was  opened  through 
the  Red  Sea  for  a  whole  marchine  nation  until 
from  the  farther  bank  they  saw  the  crystal  walls 
fall  on  the  pursuing  army  of  the   Egyptians; 


234  ECCE    TERRA. 

that  a  pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  a  pillar  of  fire 
by  night  led  the  pilgrim  host  for  forty  years  ; 
that  during  this  long  time  their  clothing  waxed 
not  old  and  their  daily  bread  came  daily  from 
heaven ;  that,  on  their  coming  to  Sinai,  God 
came  down  on  the  mount  in  foretold  majesty 
of  lightnings  and  thunders  and  earthquakes, 
and  spake  his  law  in  awful  proclamation  that 
sounded  through  all  the  marshaled  millions, 
and  carried  dismay  through  all  their  hearts. 
Many  other  events  of  a  similar  nature  are 
found  described  in  the  Old  Testament. 

In  the  New  Testament  we  find  a  record  of  a 
similar  but  still  more  illustrious  cluster  of  won- 
ders. It  tells  us  that  God  himself  became  in- 
carnate in  the  person  of  a  babe ;  that  a  host 
of  angels  appeared  to  the  shepherds  of  Bethle- 
hem and  sang  gloriously  of  the  nativity ;  that  a 
star,  moving  as  if  instinct  with  intelligence, 
guided  a  caravan  from  the  East  to  the  infant 
King ;  that,  as  he  was  being  baptized,  a  voice 
fell  from  heaven  on  the  ears  of  thousands  gath- 
ered from  all  parts  of  the  country,  saying,  ''This 
is  my  beloved  Son ;"  that  promptly,  at  the  speak- 
ing of  a  word  or  the  lifting  of  a  finger  or  some 
other  sign  equally  insufificient  as  cause,  the  blind  > 
received  sight,  the  lame  walked,  the  deaf  heard, 
the  dumb  spake,  the  lepers  were  cleansed,  the 
paralytics  took  up  their  beds  and  walked,  the 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       235 

madmen  became  sane,  the  sick  were  cured  of 
whatever  disease  they  had,  the  very  dead  were 
raised  ;  that  at  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus  the  whole 
land  was  darkened  and  shaken  ;  that  a  terrible 
angel  flashed  down  from  heaven  in  sight  of  the 
Roman  guard  about  the  sepulchre ;  that  the 
Messiah  rose  from  the  dead  and  was  seen  forty 
days  among  his  apostles,  and  on  one  occasion 
by  more  than  five  hundred  disciples  ;  that  he 
rose  to  heaven  in  broad  day  in  sight  of  the 
Eleven ;  that  these  men  themselves  received 
the  gift  of  tongues  and  the  power  of  working 
miracles,  and  wrought  them  for  years  over  a 
wide  extent  of  country. 

Beyond  question,  the  Scriptures  represent 
such  events  as  due  to  direct  divine  action. 
From  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  some  of 
these,  such  as  the  descent  of  the  Deity  on 
Sinai  and  the  incarnation,  were  supernatural; 
but  the  same  supernatural  origin  is  claimed 
by  the  Scriptures  for  the  whole  body  of  such 
marvels. 

This  claim  breathes  from  the  whole  texture 
and  atmosphere  of  the  narrative.  It  is  its 
fundamental  postulate.  It  is  true  that  some 
persons  maintain  that  while  the  Bible  is,  in 
general,  trustworthy  both  as  to  doctrine  and 
fact,  and  even  came  from  God,  its  so-called 
miracles  were  merely  very  unusual  and  strik- 


236  ECCE    TERRA. 

ing  natural  events,  produced  wholly  by  sec- 
ondary forces  and  laws.  But,  to  any  fair- 
minded  reader  of  the  Bible,  this  claim  is  too 
absurd  to  merit  the  least  attention.  It  is 
abundandy  plain  that  the  sacred  writers  meant 
to  have  us  understand  that  such  marvels  as 
have  just  been  mentioned  were  not  excep- 
tional natural  events,  but  were  wrought  di- 
rectly by  the  finger  of  God.  And  so  they 
have  been  understood  by  unsophisticated  peo- 
ple in  every  age. 

Now,  notice  the  exceeding  number,  variety 
and  greatness  of  these  divine  interventions,  also 
the  exceeding  evidence  that  accompanied  them. 

Many  scores  of  these  are  distincdy  recorded; 
and  we  are  told  that  the  New-Testament  mir- 
acles are  merely  san~ples  of  a  much  larger 
number.  See  what  breadth  of  statement: 
"And  his  fame  went  throughout  all  Syria; 
and  they  brought  to  him  all  sick  people  that 
were  taken  with  divers  diseases  and  torments, 
and  those  that  were  possessed  with  devils,  and 
those  that  were  lunatic,  and  those  that  had  the 
palsy,  and  he  healed  them."  Similar  statements 
are  several  times  made  as  to  the  miracles  of 
both  Jesus  and  his  apostles.  It  appears  that 
the  whale  land  was  filled  with  marvels.  They 
overflowed  into  surrounding  countries.  They 
lasted   for  the   best  part  of  a  century.     They 


IL  L  US  TKA  TION  B  V  GREA  T  EX  A  MPL  ES.       237 

counted  by  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands. 
They  lightened  in  city  and  on  country-side. 
They  flashed  on  the  eyes  of  nobles  and  com- 
moners, of  learned  and  simple.  Scarcely  a 
hamlet  into  which  they  did  not  go.  Scarcely  a 
man  who  did  not  have  opportunity,  over  and 
over  acrain,  of  examining  them  personally  with 
all  his  senses.  Their  heavy  footfall  was  heard 
near  every  door ;  the  family  had  but  to  open 
and  look  and  listen.  It  would,  of  course,  have 
paid  a  Jew  to  push  a  pilgrimage  to  Gaul  or 
Britain  to  come  into  the  presence  of  such 
superb  events,  but  they  came  to  greet  him  in 
his  own  streets,  and  he  had  but  to  follow  the 
crowd,  or  to  climb  the  sycamore,  or  to  ask  the 
eye-witness  of  yonder  dwelling,  in  order  to 
have  evidence  of  them  as  triumphant  as  the 
mathematics. 

We  are  so  familiar  with  this  story  that  we 
are  apt  to  miss  a  sense  of  its  exceeding  great- 
ness. It  is  easy  for  us  to  read  without  emotion 
the  oft-read  account  of  the  Nain  widow's  son 
or  of  Lazarus  bewailed  of  sisters ;  but  could 
we  actually  stand  by  the  bier  which  is  trembling 
with  the  throes  of  resurrection,  or  by  the  cave 
whence  swaddled  death  comes  promptly  forth 
at  the  word  of  command,  we  would  hardly  be 
able  to  keep  back  our  exclamadons  of  wonder 
and  awe.     We  must  try  to  transfer  ourselves 


238  ECCE    TERRA. 

to  those  distant  times.  We  should  gather 
about  ourselves,  in  idea,  the  living  circum- 
stances under  which  Almightiness  is  said  to 
have  stepped  forth  to  its  work.  We  should, 
as  it  were,  hear  with  our  own  ears  the  inad- 
equate utterance  and  the  hot  tramp  of  the 
mighty  result.  Thus  would  our  dull  concep- 
tions be  roused  and  empowered  as  was  that 
ancient  Gennesaret  when  the  storm  came 
down  upon  it.  Looking  as  through  our  own 
eyes,  we  would  better  take  in  the  hugeness  of 
those  marvels,  so  simply  set  before  us  in  the 
Scriptures,  as  they  tell  of  lame  men  leaping 
as  the  hart;  dumb  tongues  singing;  deaf  ears 
waking  up  to  a  gospel  of  sweet  sounds  and 
the  voices  of  kindred;  blind  eyes  that  had' 
rolled  sightless  from  birth  drinking  in  with 
passionate  joy  the  bright  aspects  of  nature 
and  the  loving  looks  of  parents  and  children ; 
dead  bodies  in  which  decay  had  already  begun 
to  proclaim  itself  quickened  anew  with  the 
mystery  of  life  and  soul,  and  going  forth 
among  men  with  the  old  potential  step  of 
manhood  in  its  prime — as  they  tell  of  such 
events  forthspringing  with  glorious  prompt- 
itude at  the  feeblest  natural  signal,  and  with 
a  profusion  and  overtness  that  spoke  to  the 
whole  land  and  age. 

What  supreme  evidence  accompanied  the  lead- 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       239 

ing  Scripture  miracles!    They  were  not  done  in 
a  corner.     The  entire  Hebrew  nation  of  Moses' 
day  must  have  known  perfecdy  whether  the  Mo- 
saic miracles  were  real  or  not.     They  could  not 
have  passed  forty  years   in   such  a  wonderful 
experience  without  knowing  it.    And  they  could 
not  have  been  without  such  a  forty  years'  ex- 
perience without  knowing-  that  too  to  a  perfect 
certainty.       If    no    such    plagues    were    ever 
wrought  for  their  deliverance,  they  knew  they 
were    never    wrought.       If    they    never    went 
through   the   Red   Sea  as   on   dry   land,  every 
soul   of  them   knew   that  they   never   did.     If 
they  had  not  been  led  by  that  inteUigent  pillar 
for  nearly  half  a  century,  they  all,  to  a  man, 
knew   that  they   had   not   been.      If   they   had 
never  bowed  and  quaked  before  a  bowing  and 
quaking  Sinai,  not  a   Hebrew  of  them  all  but 
knew  it  like  noonday.     If  they  had  not  been 
fed   by   daily   miracle   for  a   lifetime,   they  all, 
without  exception,  knew  that  to  absolute  dem- 
onstration.    In  short,  the  chief  Mosaic  miracles 
were  of  such  a  nature  that  the  senses  of  every 
man,   woman   and    child    among  the    Hebrews 
could  judge  of  them  infallibly. 

So  of  the  leading  Christian  miracles.  Large- 
ly, Jesus  allowed  the  whole  world  to  look  on 
while  he  wrought.  It  is  broad  day.  Gather  the 
wise  and  the  learned ;  gather  the  men  of  theory 


240  ECCE    TERRA. 

and  the  men  of  affairs  ;  gather  the  unsophisti- 
cated and  the  prejudiced,  the  devout  and  the 
worldly,  the  populace  and  the  counselors  ;  let 
them  all  come  and  sift  this  matter  to  the  bot- 
tom. So  they  came — the  scholarly  rabbi  in  all 
the  pride  of  learning ;  the  honorable  ruler  in 
all  the  pride  of  place ;  the  bitter  enemy  with 
his  sharp  outlook  for  imposture ;  the  proud 
Pharisee  drawing  his  robes  more  closely  about 
him  lest  they  should  touch  the  shamefaced  pub- 
lican at  his  side ;  the  Sadducee  with  his  free- 
thinking  ;  the  Essene  with  his  dreamy  intui- 
tions— in  a  word,  the  great  public  in  all  its 
grades  and  opinions  and  habits.  And  there, 
on  the  thronged  thoroughfare,  they  looked  and 
listened  as  blind  Bartimeus  reeained  his  sio^ht. 
There,  at  the  city-gate,  they  looked  and  lis- 
tened as  the  dead  man  sat  up  and  began  to 
speak.  There,  at  the  crowded  city-house,  they 
looked  and  listened  while  the  roof  was  broken 
up  and  the  palsied  man  was  let  down  before 
Jesus  and  cured.  And  there,  at  Calvary,  with 
its  unspeakable  martyrdom  and  surging  seas 
of  people,  they  looked  and  listened  and  felt  as 
night  came  up  at  midday  and  the  ground  shook 
beneath  them  at  the  majestic  tread  of  the  earth- 
quake. 

And  where  the  miracles  were  done  only  in 
the  presence  of  the  twelve  disciples,  they  were 


ILLUSTRATION  BY   GREAT  EXAMPLES.        24 1 

largely  such  that  those  disciples  could  not  have 
been  mistaken  as  to  their  reality  and  divine  ori- 
gin. The  evidence  was  supreme.  Could  they 
help  knowing  that  the  violent  storm  on  the  Sea 
of  Galilee  was  instantaneously  quieted  at  the 
bidding  of  their  Master  .^  Did  they  not  know, 
by  every  sense  they  had,  whether  a  living  Jesus 
was  among  them  for  forty  days  after  he  had 
been  pronounced  dead  by  the  grand  coroners 
of  Judea  and  Rome  .^  Did  they  not  know 
whether  they  saw  Jesus  rising  through  the  day 
into  heaven,  and  whether,  thereupon,  they  saw 
an  angel  standing  among  them  in  white  robes 
and  telling  of  the  second  coming  ?  Especially, 
did  they  not  know  whether  they  themselves 
possessed  the  power  of  working  miracles,  and 
whether  they  actually  wrought  them  in  great 
numbers  and  splendor  for  many  years?  Those 
twelve  men  could  not  possibly  have  been  mis- 
taken as  to  the  reality  of  any  one  of  these 
miracles,  much  less  as  to  the  reality  of  thou- 
sands of  them,  occurring  under  every  variety 
of  form  and  illuminating  a  whole  lifetime.  Just 
as  ancient  Israel  must  have  known  to  absolute 
certainty,  at  the  merest  glance,  that  no  such 
forty  years  of  miraculous  experience  as  Moses 
wrote  of  had  happened  to  them  in  case  it  had 
not,  so  those  Christian  aposdes  knew  perfecdy 
that  no  such  gorgeous   caravan  of  miraculous 

16 


242  ECCE    TERRA. 

years  as  they  wrote  of  had  borne  them  along 
in  triumphal  march  in  case  it  had  not. 

The  evidence  attending  the  Christian  miracles 
was  so  great  that  it  bred  a  magnificent  faith  in 
the  primitive  Christians.  How  like  profound 
believers  do  the  Evangelists  write !  What 
charming  directness,  simplicity  and  general 
air  of  good  faith  in  their  narratives  !  What 
faithfulness  in  recording  their  own  crudities, 
mistakes  and  sins !  Truly  they  were  consum- 
mate actors  if  they  were  merely  feigning  faith. 
Never  did  Roscius  or  Garrick  so  admirably 
personate  kings.  And  then  see  how  they  lived 
and  died.  It  is  agreed  on  all  hands  by  the  tra- 
ditions and  histories  that  the  apostles  who  lost 
their  Master  by  crucifixion  passed  their  own 
lives  in  labors,  dangers  and  sufferings  in  attes- 
tation of  the  same  miraculous  story,  and  at  last 
endured,  most  of  them,  martyrdom  for  the  same; 
and  all  with  no  possibility  of  any  such  result  to 
themselves  (such  w^as  the  pure  and  spiritual  na- 
ture of  the  system  of  religion  which  they  taught) 
as  alone  could  beckon  on  selfish  and  unprinci- 
pled men  to  undertake  such  sacrifices.  They 
had  been  with  Jesus  through  all  his  troublous 
ministry.  They  had  seen  him  crucified.  He 
had  predicted  just  such  a  stormy  life  and  fate 
for  themselves ;  and  they  tell  us  that  from  the 
beginning  of  their  separate   mission   they  had 


ILLUSTRATION  BY   GREAT  EXAMPLES.        243 

expected  the  fulfillment  of  that  prediction.     In- 
deed, the  very  circumstances  and  temper  of  the 
time  must  have  ijiven  to  the  dullest  observer 
assurance  of  the  utmost  trouble  to  all  mission- 
aries of  the  new  faith.     Yet  the  apostles  went 
forward.     They  went  forward  with  steady  feet 
and   unsparing   tongue   to    meet   the    scowling 
populace,  the  infuriated  rulers,  the  bigotry  of 
the  Jew  and  scorn  of  the  Greek,  want,  stonings, 
chains,   scourgings,  prisons,  wild  beasts,  cruci- 
fixions, infamy;  in  short,  to  receive  in  their  faces 
the  fiercest  wind  and  sleet  and  volleys  of  ill-will, 
outrage  and  death.      And  when  they  actually 
met  and  were  enveloped  by  the  storm,  did  their 
courage  fail  them?     Did  they  shrink  and  give 
way,  and   finally  disappear  humbly  within   the 
old  synagogues  and  temples?    Nothing  daunted 
those  witnesses.     They  went  on  witnessing  to 
the  end.     At  last  they  resolutely  sealed  their 
witnessing  w*ith  their  blood.      By  all  the  laws 
of  evidence,  and  by  all  the  light  of  experience 
and  history,  they  must  have   most   thoroughly 
believed  in  the   miracle-founded  system  which 
they  taught. 

But  this  is  not  all.  The  evidence  of  the 
Christian  miracles  was  so  overwhelming  that 
they  were  believed  in  by  the  whole  land  as  well 
as  by  the  apostles.  It  was  the  general  confes- 
sion, "This  man  doeth  many  miracles;"  "That 


244  ECCE    TERRA. 

a  notable  miracle  has  been  done  by  them  is 
manifest  to  all  that  dwell  at  Jerusalem,  and  we 
cannot  deny  it."  After  the  Christian  age  was 
fairly  begun  it  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred 
to  the  Jews  to  question  the  reality  of  the  mira- 
cles of  Jesus  and  his  disciples.  They  only 
questioned  their  proceeding  from  God.  They 
ascribed  them  to  Beelzebub,  the  prince  of  the 
devils.  They  said  it  was  magic  that  did  them. 
So  say  the  Talmud  and  all  the  literatures  as- 
sailing Christianity  that  have  come  down  to  us 
from  the  earlier  centuries.  Neither  Celsus,  nor 
Porphyry,  nor  Hierocles,  nor  Julian  ever  denied 
the  miracles  ;  they  only  denied  the  divine  origin 
of  them.  No  defender  of  Christianity  in  the 
earlier  times  ever  tried  to  prove  the  miracles ; 
he  always  took  them  for  granted,  and  confined 
himself  to  showing  that  they  must  be  from  God. 
Their  reality  was  universally  confessed.  And 
a  hostile  nation,  a  nation  fiercely  bitter  against 
Christianity  and  seeking  every  pointed  weapon 
against  it,  would  never  have  confessed  the 
Christian  miracles  genuine  unless  it  had  been 
compelled  by  an  astounding  majesty  and  abun- 
dance of  evidence. 

Such  were  the  Scripture  miracles.  Wonder- 
ful in  their  intrinsic  greatness,  and  also  in  the 
greatness  of  the  evidence  by  which  they  took 
captive  the  faith  of  vast  populations !    Wonder- 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        245 

ful,  also,  in  number  and  variety,  especially  in 
the  time  of  Jesus  and  his  apostles  !  As  mag- 
nificent princes  on  some  high  festival  stand  and 
scatter  gold  among  the  people  with  a  full  hand, 
so  magnificently  stood  Messiah  the  Prince  and 
sowed  out  over  the  land  his  shining  largess  as 
out  of  the  fullness  of  a  heavenly  treasury.  It 
was  a  golden  rain.  The  great  firmament  seemed 
broken  up  and  all  its  stars  falling.  City  and 
country  were  gay  with  the  mighty  spangles. 
"And  there  are  also  many  other  things  which 
Jesus  did,  the  which,  if  they  should  be  written 
every  one,  I  suppose  that  even  the  world  itself 
could  not  contain  [endure]  the  books  that 
should   be   written." 

Wonderful  events  from  almost  every  point 
of  view,  but  specially  wonderful  as  being  flash- 
ing interjections  in  current  human  affairs  of  a 
divine  Hand. 

12.  A  Marvelous  History. 

In  the  beorinnincr  God  created  the  heavens 
and  the  earth. 

The  earth,  "  without  form  and  void,"  he  grad- 
ually fitted  up  for  an  abode  of  living  things — 
plants,  brutes,  men. 

When  the  preparation  was  complete  he  willed 
into  being  the  world's  inhabitants — first,  the  end- 
less wonders  of  vegetable  life  over  all  the  lands. 


246  ECCE    TERRA. 

and  even  In  the  waters ;  second,  the  endless 
wonders  of  the  lower  orders  of  animals  that 
swim  in  the  deep,  fly  in  the  air  and  walk  or 
creep  on  the  ground  or  within  it;  last,  man, 
the  viceroy  and  image  of  God. 

For  this  king  he  made  a  companion  queen. 
He  placed  them  in  a  delightful  garden  east- 
ward In  Eden  which  he  had  specially  prepared 
for  them ;  gave  them,  at  first  hand,  most  simple 
and  reasonable  regulations,  and  ample  motives 
for  complying  with  them  ;  added  the  safeguard 
and  privilege  and  glory  of  angelic,  and  even 
of  divine,  society  and  counsels. 

.  But,  despite  these  counsels  and  all  that  the 
Hand  could  consistently  do,  In  an  evil  hour 
Adam  and  Eve  were  persuaded  into  sin  by  the 
dragon,  "  that  old  serpent  which  is  the  devil, 
and  Satan  which  decelveth  the  whole  world," 
and  so  were  driven  forth  In  shame  and  sorrow 
from  the  Paradise  to  which  they  had  become 
unfitted,  and  became  the  parents  of  a  race  sin- 
ful and  unhappy  like  themselves. 

For  several  generations  the  lives  of  men 
were  very  different  affairs  from  our  present 
lives.  They  had  some  length  to  them.  They 
gave  one  a  brave  chance  to  get  something 
done.  Were  wildernesses  to  be  subdued,  cities 
built,  kingdoms  founded,  arts  and  sciences 
thought  out? — there  was  a  plenty  of  time  for 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       247 

everything  before  night.  The  sun  rose  and 
dimbed  and  circled  about  the  zenith  as  in  an 
Arctic  day  ;  would  it  ever  set?  Adam  lived  nine 
hundred  and  thirty  years,  Methusaleh  nine  hun- 
dred and  sixty-nine,  and  none  of  the  men  of 
that  period  whose  names  have  come  down  to 
us  fell  far  short  of  these  ages.  Ah,  those  were 
grand  orbits  !  Those  were  lives  worth  living  ! 
Just  think  of  it!  Nine  centuries  and  more — 
little  immortalities  I  A  man  was  still  dewy  and 
lithe  with  early  youth  at  an  age  when  now  he 
would  be  an  infirm  old  man  supporting  his 
trembling  steps  wath  a  staff. 

*'  There  were  giants  on  the  earth  in  those 
days."  Tradition  points  in  the  same  direction 
— from  those  among  the  Arabs  who  profess  to 
show  the  eraves  of  Adam  and  Noah,  a  hundred 
feet  long,  to  those  among  the  Greeks  and 
Romans  who  tell  of  the  Titans,  vast  sons  of 
the  Earth  and  the  Sky,  and  almost  equal  to 
gods  in  strength.  In  the  same  direction,  also, 
points  the  fact  that  the  earlier  individuals  of 
the  leading  fossil  species  of  brute  animals  have 
been  the  larger  and  more  perfect.  The  pro- 
digious vitality  and  physical  completeness  ex- 
pressed in  such  long  lives  strongly  favor  the 
same  view.  Altogether,  does  it  not  seem  prob- 
able that  if  some  geologist,  in  the  course  of 
his  pryings  among  the  strata,  should  uncover 


248  ECCE    TERRA. 

the  skeleton  of  a  primitive  man,  he  would  be 
astonished  at  the  great  bones  that  proclaim 
himself  a  pigmy  ? 

Men  abused  the  great  forms  and  prodigious 
lives  which  their  Maker  still  allowed  them. 
How  much  good  a  man  could  do  and  get  in 
the  course  of  nine  centuries!  To  what  heio-hts 
of  virtuous  habit  might  he  not  climb!  But 
then  to  what  depths  of  badness  and  hardness 
might  he  not  sink !  A  sinner  now,  who  has 
been  hardening  for  the  better  part  of  a  single 
century,  is  flint:  what  of  the  sinner  w^ho  has 
been  hardening  nine  times  as  long?  Such 
were  the  original  sinners.  Men  became  awful- 
ly and  almost  universally  wicked.  "All  flesh 
corrupted  its  way."  The  good  were  reduced 
to  a  single  small  household.  The  more  men 
departed  from  God,  the  more  they  departed 
from  each  other.  Brother  rose  against  brother. 
"The  earth  was  filled  with  violence;"  "And  God 
saw  that  the  wickedness  of  man  was  great  in 
the  earth,  and  that  every  imagination  of  the 
thought  of  his  heart  was  only  evil  continually." 
These  are  strong  words.  One  almost  stands 
aghast  at  the  picture  of  depravity,  disorder  and 
outrageous  crime  which  they  call  up. 

Was  God  inactive  while  men  were  getting  so 
high-handed  ?  That  is  incredible.  Even  good 
men   cannot  rest  without   striving  against   the 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        249 

vices  and  follies  of  their  times — much  less 
could  the  good  God.  So  his  Spirit  strove 
with  man.  He  strongly  wresded  and  fought 
with  the  growing  wickedness.  Perhaps  he  now 
and  then  struck  down  suddenly,  as  with  a  bolt, 
some  daring  ringleader.  Perhaps  he  sent  to 
them  warning  dreams  and  visions.  Perhaps  a 
divine  voice,  or  angels  on  rainbow  wings,  broke 
in  with  remonstrances  on  their  oaths  and  rev- 
elries and  profligacies.  Certainly,  God  sounded 
trumpets  in  their  consciences — inwardly  sug- 
gesting, inviting,  warning,  persuading,  instruct- 
inor — even  as  he  now  "convinces  of  sin,  of 
righteousness,  and  of  judgment."  As  certain 
are  we  that  he  foretold  to  them  a  dreadful  fate 
in  case  they  did  not  repent,  limited  them  to  a 
probation  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  years, 
and  remonstrated  with  them  both  by  the  words 
and  deeds  of  Noah,  the  preacher  of  righteous- 
ness. 

But  all  in  vain.  God  was  almighty  and  all- 
wise,  but  then  the  contest  was  a  moral  one,  in 
which,  if  possible,  men  were  to  be  won  from 
wickedness  by  their  fears  and  hopes  and  con- 
sciences ;  and  in  this  moral  wrestling  the  vic- 
tory was  with  the  weaker  side.  God  was  de- 
feated. Wickedness  came  off  with  flying  colors. 
The  world  remained  as  bad  as  ever — nay,  grew 
worse.     Sinners,  awful  with  the  hardness  and 


250  ECCE    TERRA. 

inveteracy  of  a  wicked  millennium,  were  teach- 
ing the  new  generations  to  be  worse  than  them- 
selves.    What  must  be  done  ? 

God  must  act  again.  He  has  tried  to  govern 
by  his  law  :  now  he  must  govern  by  his  sword. 
He  has  threatened  that  unless  men  amend  he 
will  destroy  them.  Of  course  such  threats  must 
be  fulfilled.  The  long  moral  striving  on  the  part 
of  God  must  now  give  place  to  another  sort  of 
divine  activity — the  activity  of  power  and  justice 
and  wrath.  So  he  grave  notice  to  the  one  orood 
family  in  all  the  earth  (so  bad  was  the  state  of 
things)  to  build  an  ark  for  itself;  for,  was  he  not 
about  to  drown  the  whole  race  of  rebels  as  an 
intolerable  and  irreclaimable  nuisance,  and  to 
wash  clean  again  the  dirty  and  stenchful  world 
with  his  avenorino-  floods  ?  How  the  ark  was  to 
be  built — how  large,  how  shaped,  of  what  mate- 
rials, what  occupants  it  should  have, — all  were 
matters  of  express  divine  appointment.  The 
axes  rano-,  the  hammers  sounded,  the  ereat 
structure  slowly  grew,  and,  for  the  hundred  and 
twenty  years  during  which  it  went  on  toward 
completion,  Noah  preached  righteousness  more 
loudly,  perhaps,  with  his  hands  than  with  his 
voice,  and  God  continued  to  strive. 

At  last  the  ark  is  done.  Enter,  said  the  voice 
of  God  to  Noah  and  his  family.  Enter,  said  the 
power  of  God  to  representatives  of  every  sort 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        2$  I 

of  land  animals.     Then  God  shut  them  in,  shut 
the  rebels  out.    Probation  finished.    Grow  black 
the  heavens.     Hark  to  the  muttering  thunder ! 
Is   that   the   rush   and   roar   of  distant  winds? 
Crash  !  and  a  red  bolt  leaps  like  a  bloody  dag- 
ger   out    of  the   angry   clouds   at    the    ghasdy 
earth.       And    in    the    glare    are    seen    ghasdy 
people  standing  at  their  doors  and  on  house- 
tops,   looking    terror    into    each    other's    eyes. 
Was  that  a  drop  of  rain  ?     Yes  ;  hearken  now 
to  the  patter.     And  now  it  pours, /^2/ri",  pours, 
as  if  the  very  sky  itself  were  turning  to  water. 
The  solid  strata  burst  with  the  sound  of  thunder. 
Great  seams  open  everywhere,  through  w^iich 
leap  up  unnumbered  geysers.     Down  the  hill- 
sides   rush   the    torrents,    roaring    and    tearing 
through  gorges  and  ravines.     Now  the  smaller 
streams  overflow  their  banks  ;  now  the  rivers, 
spurred  by  ten   thousand  unwonted  tributaries, 
rush  like  mad  coursers  to  the  sea.      And  the 
sea  itself  has  to-day  a  dde  that  ebbs  not — high 
above  high-water  mark,  above  spring  and  neap, 
above   the   hiorhest    that    the    oldest  inhabitant 
ever  made  or  knew — sdll  on  and  on,  day  after 
day,  until  the  land  has  become  an  archipelago, 
a  wreck-covered  sea,  up  through  which  pierce 
the    hills    as    so    many   islands,   all    black   with 
people ;    and   the    great    ark   loosens    from    its 
place  on   the  mountain-side   and  floats  mutely 


252  ECCE    TERRA. 

by  the  crowds  of  imploring,  drowning  wretches 
who  have  at  last  discovered  that  there  is  a  God. 
At  length  the  last  peak  disappears.  A  single 
rebel  left?  Not  one.  The  world  is  drowned. 
The  ark,  freighted  with  the  seed  of  a  new  dis- 
pensation, is  the  only  thing  to  be  seen  on  all 
that  wide  avenging  ocean. 

See  what  the  Hand  has  done !  Whether  the 
axis  of  the  earth  was  altered  or  its  diurnal  rev- 
olution suddenly  suspended,  or  some  disorderly 
sphere,  roving  near  the  earth,  drew  the  waters  to- 
ward itself  and  heaped  the  oceans  on  the  land, 
or  floods  of  water  freshly  created  for  the  occa- 
sion arose  to  judgment — who  knows?  But  this 
we  know,  that  in  whatever  way  the  work  was 
done,  it  was  done  according  to  express  predic- 
tion and  by  a  direct  act  of  divine  sovereignty 
and  power  as  a  judgment  on  sin :  as  when  a 
human  monarch  bids  his  armies  march,  and 
marches  himself  at  their  head  with  flashing 
sword,  to  overwhelm  his  enemies  and  lay  waste 
their  country.  Such  is  the  Scripture  account; 
it  purports  to  be  history — has  always  been  re- 
ceived as  such — is  naturally  understood  as  such 
by  all  unsophisticated  people. 

The  same  Hand  that  let  loose  the  avenging 
floods  removed  them  when  their  work  was 
done.  It  held  back  the  rains.  It  sealed  up 
the  fountains.     It  made  a  thirsty  wind  to  blow 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        253 

across  the  waters  and  drink  them  insatiably. 
And  at  last  the  same  divine  voice  that  bade 
Noah  enter  his  ark  bade  him  go  out  to  possess 
a  new  world. 

So  the  race  began  anew,  from  a  pious  stock. 
Anew  men  multiplied,  grew  wicked,  spread 
themselves  westward  on  the  plains  of  Shinar. 
Here  they  set  to  work  to  build  a  great  city  and 
sky-piercing  tower.  Exactly  how  much  wicked- 
ness they  meant  by  this  is  not  clear,  but  they 
seem  at  least  to  have  been  inspired  by  pride 
and  presumption  and  a  wish  to  prevent  the 
dispersion  of  men  over  the  earth  according  to 
the  divine  plan.  Their  heaven-climbing  tower 
should  be  seen  from  afar  and  be  a  rallying-point 
for  the  fast-spreading  multitudes.  Their  grand 
city  should  be  a  powerful  magnet  to  keep  the 
straying  peoples  together.  They  meant  con- 
centration— God  meant  diffusion.  They  meant 
the  pride  and  power  and  condensed  wickedness 
of  a  great  metropolis — God  meant  the  compar- 
ative simplicity  and  purity  and  healthfulness  and 
freedom  of  rural  life  and  of  a  scattered  popula- 
tion. And  the  meaning  of  God  triumphed.  For 
his  hand  was  lifted,  and  smote,  not  the  bodies 
of  those  presumptuous  builders,  but  their  lan- 
guage. Hitherto  all  had  been  of  one  speech, 
but  now,  at  the  smiting  of  the  Hand,  the  one 
flew  into  the  many.      The  Arabic  strove  with 


254  ECCE    TERRA. 

the  Latin,  the  Hebrew  with  the  Greek,  and  the 
Sanskrit  with  all.  It  was  jargon.  It  was  babel. 
One  group  of  workmen  did  not  understand  an- 
other. "  What  do  they  mean  ?  Are  they  mock- 
ing us  ?"  So  perplexity,  impatience,  suspicions, 
alienations  and  exasperations  arose.  The  build- 
ers ceased  to  build,  they  drew  apart.  In  this 
simple  way  their  unity  was  broken  up,  and  it 
became  impossible  for  them  to  plan  and  act  in 
concert  as  they  had  been  wont  to  do.  Instead 
of  walls  rising  around  them,  walls  arose  between 
them.  A  centrifugal  force  was  secured,  under 
the  steady  action  of  which  they  went  forth  in 
all  directions  the  more  rapidly  to  people  the 
earth;  became  distinct  clans,  tribes,  nations, 
manageable  bodies  for  civil  government,  serv- 
ing as  checks  on  each  other  in  courses  of  vio- 
lence and  ambition,  prompting  to  many  health- 
ful competitions ;  sometimes  scourging  each 
other  for  sin  in  God's  behalf  and  as  his 
unconscious    ministers. 

Just  how  suddenly  this  diversity  of  languages 
was  brought  about  we  are  not  told.  But  we 
are  given  to  understand,  in  the  whole  structure 
of  the  narrative,  that  when  brought  about  it 
was  not  by  the  mere  working  of  natural  causes, 
such  as  now  tend  to  change  languages  and  such 
as  have  made  the  English  of  a  few  centuries 
ago  almost  unintelligible  to  us.     God  himself 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       255 

took  the  matter  directly  in  hand.  The  Hand 
hurried  through  what  else  had  been  the  work 
of  centuries,  if  not  in  a  moment  or  a  day,  at 
least  in  a  less  time  than  was  necessary  to  build 
a  city  of  brick,  materials  all  at  hand.  It  was  a 
case  of  the  supernatural.  The  same  divine 
power  that  equipped  man  at  his  start  with  a 
language  as  full  grown  as  his  body  (instead  of 
leaving  him  to  find  his  way  to  it  by  the  slow 
process  of  gradual  invention  and  accumulation 
of  minute  improvements),  by  a  similar  right- 
handed  sovereignty  started  into  being  other 
languages  full  grown.  They  were  propagated 
by  fission,  if  you  please,  but  the  fission  took 
place  not  naturally,  but  by  the  smiting  of  a 
divine  Hand. 

In  the  dispersion  from  Babel  did  Ham  and 
his  descendants  stream  off  to  Africa,  Japhet 
and  his  descendants  to  Europe,  Shem  and  his 
to  the  four  winds  in  Asia?  Did  this  tribe  settle 
in  Mesopotamia,  that  in  Egypt,  this  in  Phoenicia, 
that  in  the  land  of  Sinim?  Where  each  new 
tongue  found  a  home  and  founded  a  state,  thith- 
er it  went,  not  as  chance  would  have  it,  or  the 
enforcings  of  mere  natural  circumstance,  but  as 
the  unseen  Hand  constrained.  "  He  made  of 
one  blood  all  nations  of  men  to  dwell  on  all 
the  face  of  the  earth,  and  hath  determined  the 
times  before  appointed  and  the  bounds  of  their 


256  ECCE    TERRA. 

habitation y  This  passage  is  not  found  in  a 
poem,  but  in  a  speech  of  Paul  to  the  Athe- 
nians. Very  hkely  nothing  beyond  the  conve- 
niences, needs  and  passions  of  men,  nothing 
beyond  considerations  of  soil  and  climate,  of 
rivers  and  mountains,  of  friends  and  enemies, 
was  visible  at  the  time  as  influencing  the  setde- 
ment  of  new  regions  ;  but  the  Scripture  takes 
us  behind  the  scenes  to  see  the  hand  of  God 
^^§'§^i"§"  the  channels  and  directing  into  them 
the  streams  of  emigration — setding  the  Arabs 
in  their  deserts,  the  Greeks  in  Greece,  the 
Romans  in  Italy,  the  Sclaves  in  Russia,  the 
Germans  about  the  Rhine,  the  Britons  in  their 
island-home — in  short,  decreeing  the  where- 
abouts and  times  of  every  nation,  past  and 
present.  All  in  harmony  with  that  broader 
teaching,  that  "the  Most  High  rules  in  the 
kingdoms  of  men,  gives  them  to  whomsoever 
he  will,  increases  the  nations  and  destroys 
them,  enlarges  the  nations  and  straitens  them 
again." 

Among  the  earlier  setdements  of  the  world 
was  that  in  the  fertile  vale  of  Siddim.  Here 
were  built  seven  towns,  the  leadine  ones  beine 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah.  Wicked,  wicked  Sodom 
and  Gomorrah !  The  very  names  smut  our 
pages.  "  Pride,  fullness  of  bread  and  abun- 
dance of  idleness,"  as  too  often  happens,  went 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        25/ 

on  to  dissipation  and  abominableness  ;  and  at 
last  the  nuisance  became  intolerable  even  to 
the  long-suffering  God.  So  he  sent  his  angels, 
led  out  of  the  doomed  plain  the  one  righteous 
man  and  his  family,  and  then  rained  fire  and 
brimstone  out  of  heaven  till  the  whole  region 
about  was  one  sea  of  fire.  Died  the  sinners, 
perished  the  cities ;  some  fancy  that  a  Dead 
Sea  moaning  over  the  polluted  sites  is  for  ever 
trying  to  wash  them  clean  and  for  ever  pro- 
claiming by  its  ever-nauseous  floods  the  impos- 
sibility of  the  task. 

Did  some  sudden  volcano  spout  sulphur- 
ously  through  the  air?  Did  the  hot  simoom  of 
the  desert  raise  aloft  the  dry  brimstone  dust  of 
Siddim  in  clouds,  and  then  ignite  with  its  fiery 
breath  both  the  clouds  above  and  the  bitumen- 
pits  below  ?  I  do  not  know.  But  this  I  know, 
that  in  whatever  way  that  fiery  destruction 
came,  and  however  many  natural  agencies 
were  concerned  in  it,  it  was  appointed  and 
predicted  and  brought  about  by  the  direct 
personal  action  of  the  Almighty.  By  the 
same  Hand  the  disobedient  wife  of  Lot  be- 
came a  pillar  of  salt. 

In  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  dwelt  a  good  man. 
This  man  was  chosen  by  God  to  be  the  founder 
of  a  people  having  special  privileges.  They 
were  to  receive  divine  oracles.     They  were  to 

17 


258  ECCE    TERRA. 

be  an  ark  for  the  conservation  of  truth  in  rude 
and  troublous  times.  They  were  to  be  brought 
into  almost  visible  relations  with  God  by  signs 
and  wonders  and  revelations.  And  among  them, 
in  process  of  time,  should  appear  One  in  whom 
all  the  families  of  the  earth  should  be  blessed. 
In  point  of  religious  privileges  and  opportuni- 
ties they  should  excel  all  other  nations,  and  if 
they  would  use  their  privileges  well  they  should 
prosper  outwardly  beyond  all  others.  But  if 
they  would  abuse  them  their  outward  afflictions 
should  also  be  beyond  precedent.  (See  Deut. 
28.)  As  was  but  reasonable :  to  whom  much 
is  given,  of  them  may  much  properly  be  re- 
quired. 

In  accordance  with  this  plan,  God  said  to 
Abram  in  some  clear  way,  "  Get  thee  out  from 
thy  country  and  from  thy  kindred,  and  come 
into  the  land  that  I  shall  show  thee."  So  he 
came  into  the  land  of  Canaan.  And  there  he 
and  his  son  and  grandsons,  for  the  most  part, 
passed  their  days — every  now  and  then  favored 
with  a  communication  of  the  divine  will  by  a 
dream  or  an  angel  or  a  divine  voice  (not  to  say 
incarnation),  as  indeed  all  previous  ages  had 
been.  A  great-grandson  of  his  was  signally 
favored  in  the  same  way ;  and,  through  his  fac- 
ulty as  a  prophet,  became  prime  minister  of 
Egypt,  the  preserver  of  his  race  and  the  means 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       259 

of  their  honorable  settlement  as  citizens  in  the 
valley  of  the  Nile. 

In  course  of  time  the  citizens  became  the 
slaves.  At  last  Gocl  raised  up  a  deliverer, 
commissioned  him  for  his  work  by  an  audible 
voice,  and  clothed  him  with  miraculous  powers 
that  he  might  bring  his  people  out  of  their 
house  of  bondage.  Portent  after  portent 
leaped  sublimely  from  his  rod.  Plague  after 
plague  smote  the  oppressor.  It  was  a  scourge 
of  ten  thongs,  and  every  thong  evoked  a  wail 
through  the  whole  land,  from  palace  to  hovel. 
"Let  my  people  go,"  said  the  scourge  as  it 
whistled  through  the  air ;  and  lice  and  flies 
and  hail  and  locusts  and  boils  and  murrain  and 
blood  and  darkness  and  death  in  turn  sought 
out  every  Egyptian  house  and  spared  every 
house  of  Israel.  So  at  last  the  slaves  became 
freedmen,  and  went  out  with  a  high  hand  and 
an  outstretched  arm.  A  pillar  of  cloud  led  their 
armies  by  day,  and  a  pillar  of  fire  by  night. 
The  Red  Sea,  cloven  in  twain,  gave  them  dry 
passage  while  it  drowned  their  pursuers.  Down 
through  the  desert  conducts  the  wondrous  pil- 
lar— the  pillar  that  can  lighten  and  darken  and 
talk.  Every  morn,  save  on  the  Sabbath,  the 
bread  of  heaven  lies  about  their  camp  like  the 
dews.  Rocks  pour  out  water  to  quench  their 
thirst.     Birds   offer  themselves   by  millions   to 


26o  ECCE    TERRA. 

meet  their  cravlnor  for  flesh.  Lo,  Sinai !  How 
it  quakes  and  thunders  and  blazes  !  The  pomp 
of  God  is  on  its  brow,  and  an  awful  voice  that 
affrights  the  millions  pronounces  to  them  the 
Ten  Commandments.  They  were  then  twice 
written  by  the  finger  of  God  on  tables  of  stone. 
In  addition,  a  whole  system  of  religious  duties 
and  observances,  known  to  us  as  the  "  Mosaic 
Economy,"  was  given  to  Moses  in  a  way  of  di- 
rect personal  communication.  God  talked  with 
him  face  to  face  as  a  man  talketh  with  his  friend. 
A  tabernacle,  and  priesthood,  and  oracle  with 
its  Urim  and  Thummim  and  Shekinah,  and  a 
picturesque  array  of  types  and  shadows,  were 
established.  God  took  upon  himself  to  be  the 
civil  Head  of  the  nation.  He  made  their  o-ov- 
ernment  a  glorious  and  unparalleled  theocracy. 
Yet  they  grievously  sinned.  So  his  wrath  came 
upon  them  and  smote  down  the  chosen  men  of 
Israel.  They  were  bitten  of  fiery  serpents.  The 
earth  opened  and  swallowed  up  Dathan  and 
covered  the  company  of  Abiram.  For  forty 
years,  as  they  were  led  up  and  down  the  wil- 
derness by  the  supernatural  pillar,  their  clothes 
waxed  not  old  nor  did  their  sandals  fail  them. 
For  forty  years  they  continued  to  take  their 
daily  bread  out  of  God's  right  hand. 

So  at  last  they  came  to  Canaan.      Still  the 
aureole  of  miracles  continued — now  about  the 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       26 1 

head  of  Joshua.  "What  ailed  diee,  O  diou  sea, 
diat  thou  fleddest,  and  Jordan,  that  thou  wast 
driven  back  ?"  Not  that  the  feet  of  priests  just 
touched  thy  waves,  but  that  the  hand  of  thy 
Creator  touched  them.  The  walls  of  Jericho 
fell  down  tiat  before  the  besiegers.  Was  it 
their  tramping  about  the  city  and  the  blowing 
of  rams'  horns — the  prodigious  dynamics  of 
rams'  horns — that  did  it?  Those  walls  of  stone 
trembled,  shook,  toppled,  lay  low,  because  the 
Hand  was  invisibly  smiting  them.  "Sun,  stand 
thou  still  upon  Gibeon,  and  thou,  moon,  in  the 
valley  of  Ajalon.  So  the  sun  stood  still  in  the 
midst  of  heaven  and  hasted  not  to  go  down 
about  a  whole  day."  Wonderful !  Did  the 
power  that  did  that  feat — that  stopped  the 
rotadon  of  the  earth,  or  bent  to  a  circle  the 
hasty  rays  of  light,  or  flooded  the  sky  for 
twenty-four  hours  with  the  rays  of  a  substitute 
sun — did  that  power  belong  to  the  voice  of  a 
man,  or  was  it  the  power  of  God  riding  forth 
enthroned  on  the  chariot  of  human  speech  ? 

So  all  along  the  course  of  the  Old-Testament 
history,  at  intervals  longer  or  shorter,  events 
occurred  for  which  no  second  causes  can  ac- 
count, or  which  are  so  explicitly  ascribed  in 
Scripture  to  the  supernatural  that  nothing 
short  of  infidelity  itself  can  explain  away  the 
testimony.       Prophets    arose  ;     oracles    spoke  ; 


262  ECCE    TERRA. 

deliverers  were  raised  up ;  angels  came  with 
heavenly  messages ;  batdes  were  divinely 
gained  or  lost ;  dreams  and  visions  taught 
men  the  will  of  Heaven ;  famines  and  plen- 
ties, sickness  and  health,  came  and  went  at  a 
word ;  the  shadow  went  back  on  the  dial  of 
Ahaz  ;  "holy  men  of  God  spake"  and  wrote 
"as  they  were  moved  of  the  Holy  Ghost;"  a 
host  became  corpses  in  a  single  night, 

"For  the  angel  of  death  spread  his  wings  on  the  blast, 
And  breathed  in  the  face  of  the  foe  as  he  passed ;  " 

fire  leaped  from  heaven  at  call  to  consume  sac- 
rifices, destroy  wicked  men  and  confound  the 
worshipers  of  idols ;  "  the  mountain  was  full 
of  chariots  and  horses  of  fire  round  about 
Elisha ;"  "women  received  their  dead  raised  to 
life  again  ;"  men  walked  unharmed  in  the  midst 
of  a  fiery  furnace  and  in  dens  of  hungry  lions  ; 
a  spectral  hand  wrote  the  doom  of  an  empire 
on  the  wall ;  "time  would  fail  me  to  tell  of  Gid- 
eon and  of  Barak  and  of  Samson  and  of  Jeph- 
thah,  of  David  also,  and  Samuel,  and  of  the 
prophets,  who  through  faith  subdued  kingdoms, 
.  .  .  stopped  the  mouths  of  lions,  quenched  the 
violence  of  fire,  .  .  .  turned  to  fliofht  the  armies 
of  the  aliens."  A  man  who  can  believe  the 
Scripture  and  yet  think  that  it  does  not  teach, 
and  mean  to  teach,  the  direct  personal   inter- 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       263 

vention  of  God  In  these  things  at  the  time  of 
them,  but  rather  such  poetical  interventions  as 
may  be  attributed  to  the  original  Author  of 
nature  and  its  forces,  who,  once  for  all,  at  the 
beginning,  wound  up  the  clock  of  centuries 
and  nations,  is  a  rationalist  without  reason,  or 
at  least  without  reasonableness.  Such  a  believ- 
er is  only  a  baptized  infidel. 

A  peculiar  people !  Certainly,  in  respect  to 
religious  privileges  and  national  opportunity. 
Never  elsewhere  on  the  planet  did  God  so  un- 
veil his  hand,  so  display  his  sceptre,  to  the  eyes 
of  men,  so  walk  before  them  in  the  royalty  of 
a  visible  theocracy.  Never  elsewhere  were 
such  promises  made  to  obedience.  The  world 
should  have  an  opportunity  to  see  for  them- 
selves how  correct  is  the  common  notion  that 
if  we  could  only  stand  face  to  face  with  the 
supernatural,  could  only  live  in  the  midst  of 
an  economy  of  glorious  marvels  in  which  God 
is  almost  seen  in  the  act  of  royally  governing,  no 
one  would  be  lacking  in  faith  and  obedience. 
A  thorough  experiment  with  the  Hebrews, 
drawn  patiently  out  through  a  thousand  years 
and  duly  set  down  in  imperishable  records, 
should  set  the  matter  for  ever  at  rest. 

Surprising  result!  "If  they  hear  not  Moses 
and  the  prophets,  neither  will  they  be  per- 
suaded though  one  rose  from  the  dead."     The 


264  ECCE    TERRA. 

earth   rocked,  the   heavens   blazed,  the   angels 
flew  visibly  athwart  the  blue  on  their  wings  of 
balm,  the   clouds   and   darkness   thinned  away 
from  before  the  Hand  till  it  became  almost  in- 
sufferably bright,  and  yet —     Ah,  what  unbelief 
and    perverseness  !     "  Ye  stiff-necked  and  un- 
clrcumcised   in   heart  and   ears,   ye   do   always 
resist    the    Holy  Ghost;    as    your    fathers   did, 
so   do  ye."     If  one  wants   to   know  what  the 
Hebrews  would  have   been   If  they  had   done 
justice  to  their  opportunities,  let  him  read  the 
first  part  of  the  twenty-eighth  chapter  of  Deu- 
teronomy.    And   if  one  wants   to   know  what 
they  actually  turned  out  to  be  In  their  vexa- 
tious and  unconscionable  wickedness,  let  him 
read  the  predictions   In  the   latter  part  of  the 
same    chapter,    also    profane    history.     Among 
the  smallest  of  nations.     In  arts  and  arms  and 
splendor  and  extent  of  territory  utterly  insig- 
nificant by  the  side  of  its  neighbors,  the  great 
Assyrian,   Egyptian,   Persian,   Macedonian  and 
Roman    empires.       Leaving    out    of   view    the 
books    which    God    himself   dictated,    the    He- 
brews  had   no   literature  to  speak  of.     In  na- 
tional   respectability  and    Influence   they    have 
generally  been   the   ''  tail,  and   not   the   head." 
In  scornings  and  humiliations  and  wide  variety 
of  suffering   no   people   can    pretend   to   equal 
them.     And  all   because  they  were  a   peculiar 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       265 

people — peculiarly  favored  with  privileges  and 
opportunities,  and  so  peculiarly  guilty  in  their 
sins,  and  so  peculiarly  chastised. 

We   come   now  to   a   time  when    the  visible 
stream  of  supernaturalism,  long  directed  spe- 
cially toward  the  peculiar  people,  is  seen  broad- 
ening toward  all   nations.     The   Desire  of  all 
nations  is  at  hand.     After  some  four  hundred 
years,  in  which  signs  and  wonders  have  been 
withheld— as  if  for  the  purpose  of  making  an- 
other outburst  of  them  more  impressive — a  new 
dispensation  dawns.    God  sends  an  angel  to  an- 
nounce the  supernatural  birth  of  the  forerunner 
of  the  Messiah ;  and  then  another  angel  to  an- 
nounce  the   miraculous    birth   of    the   Messiah 
himself.     And  who,  now  that  he  is  come,  is  this 
rough-hewn  John  the  Baptist,  who  never  fears 
the  face  of  clay?     A  prophet?     "Yea,   I   say 
unto  you  ;    and   more  than   a  prophet."     And 
who,  now  that  he  is  come,  is  this  son  of  a  vir- 
gin,  foretold    ages   gone   with   minute   circum- 
stantiality?      Hush!    ask    it   only    with    bated 
breath,  for  the  answer  is  one  that  to  this  day 
astonishes    both    earth    and    heaven.       Behold 
God   manifest   in  the  flesh— in   the  flesh   of  a 
litde  child!      Hitherto  the  world   has   had  the 
supernatural  Hand,  now  it  has  the  whole  super- 
natural  Person.     And   is   to   have   it  for  long 
years.     No  wonder  that  a  golden  cloud  stoops 


266  ECCE    TERRA. 

down  through  the  night,  dissolves  into  a  host 
of  radiant  forms  making  august  celebration ; 
the  shepherds  of  Bethlehem  see  midnight 
shining  as  the  day  on  that  unexampled  won- 
der, the  birth  of  God.  And  who  are  these 
hasting  westward  in  long  and  travel-stained 
caravan?  Star-led,  dream- warned,  God-sum- 
moned sages,  representative  men  bringing  the 
homage  and  tribute  of  the  Gentile  world  to 
its  Jewish  King.  Warned  of  God,  his  parents 
take  him  to  Egypt ;  warned  of  God,  they  bring 
back  and  make  him  a  Nazarene. 

The  first  shower  of  the  glorious  rainy  season 
that  makes  all  things  green.  A  lull.  The  years 
roll  on  as  they  will  and  must.  The  divine  Child 
has  become  a  divine  Man  ;  appears  at  Jordan 
under  an  open  heaven  from  which  settles  upon 
him  the  Holy  Ghost  in  visible  form,  also  a  heav- 
enly voice  that  says,  "  This  is  my  beloved  Son, 
in  whom  I  am  well  pleased."  From  this  time 
a  steady  downpour  of  wonders  which  only  the 
Hand  can  explain — wonderful  teachings  such  as 
never  came  from  other  teachers,  however  fa- 
mous; wonderful  fulfillments  of  old  prophecies; 
wonderful  deeds  of  power  as  well  as  of  knowl- 
edge, by  which  the  blind  receive  sight,  the  lame 
walk,  the  lepers  are  cleansed,  the  deaf  hear,  the 
dumb  speak,  storms  cease  at  a  word,  the  dead 
are   raised,  and    (scarcely  less   wonderful,  con- 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       26/ 

slderlng  the  times)  the  poor  have  the  gospel 
preached  to  them.  For  three  years  the  star- 
flakes  descend  till  the  land  is  galacteal  with 
their  glory.  Then  comes  a  greater  glory  still, 
a  falling  sun — God  sacrificing  himself  for  the 
sins  of  men,  while  the  sky  puts  on  mourning, 
the  earth  quakes  with  astonishment  and  horror 
and  many  bodies  of  sleeping  saints  arise.  And 
then  is  seen  a  greater  resurrection  still.  An 
angel  flashes  down  and  rolls  away  the  stone 
from  the  door  of  the  sepulchre.  Forth  comes 
the  Crucified.  "  Handle  me  and  see,  for  a 
spirit  has  not  flesh  and  bones  as  ye  see  me 
have."  And  now  behold  him,  defying  gravity, 
rising  through  the  air,  lessening  on  the  sight, 
at  last  disappearing  in  the  far  clouds.  Ah, 
the  King  has  come  to  his  own  again.  And 
"  he  shall  come  in  like  manner  as  ye  have  seen 
him  go  into  heaven,"  break  in  two  white-robed 
strangers  standing  suddenly  among  the  rapt, 
up-gazing  disciples.     And  he  will. 

Glorious  incarnation,  miracles,  atonement, 
resurrection,  and  ascension  !  Instead  of  say- 
ing, "  Lo,  the  hand  of  the  King !"  we  say,  "  Lo, 
THE  KING  HIMSELF!" 

Now  that  the  sun  is  withdrawn,  the  planets 
can  be  seen.  Look  at  the  apostles  shining 
with    reflected    light.      Gathered    in    an    upper 


268  ECCE    TERRA. 

room,  praying  and  waiting,  waiting  and  pray- 
ing, as  believers  still  have  to  do.  Lo,  the  sound 
of  a  rushing  mighty  wind !  A  fiery  tongue 
rested  on  the  head  of  each.     And  the  tono^ue 

o 

of  each  became  a  tongue  of  fire — swift,  fer- 
vent, eloquent,  wise,  able  to  tell  in  any  lan- 
guage the  wonderful  works  of  God.  In  a 
twinkling  leaping  far  beyond  Gamaliels  and 
universities ;  swiftly  qualified  by  the  Sceptre 
for  their  work,  better  than  any  professors  and 
seminaries  could  have  qualified  them  in  tedious 
drilling  years;  masters  of  speech  toward  the  four 
winds, — see  what  It  is  to  be  empowered  from  on 
high  !  Jerusalem  rushed  to  see.  "  Parthians  and 
Medes  and  Elamites  and  the  dwellers  in  Meso- 
potamia and  Judea  and  Cappadocia,  in  Pontus 
and  Asia,  Phrygia  and  Pamphylia,  in  Egypt  and 
in  the  parts  of  Lybia  about  Gyrene,  and  stran- 
gers of  Rome,  Jews  and  proselytes,  Gretes  and 
Arabians,"  came,  saw,  and  were  conquered. 
How  could  they  resist  that  self-evidencing 
polyglot  gospel  ?  So  three  thousand  of  them 
submitted  at  once,  and  went  their  ways  to  their 
various  countries  with  new  faith  and  new  hearts 
— of  course  trumpet  on  lip.  How  providential! 
For  the  purpose  of  a  wide  and  swift  diffusion 
of  the  gospel  that  first  Ghristlan  revival  at  Je- 
rusalem on  the  Pentecost  could  not  have  been 
more  happily  placed. 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        269 

And  It  was  soon  found  that  the  mantle  of 
Jesus  had  fallen  when  he  ascended.  "  In  the 
name  of  Jesus."  This  name  was  to  the  apostles 
what  the  mantle  of  Elijah  was  to  Ellsha,  what 
the  rod  of  God  was  to  Moses.  It  cast  out 
devils.  It  healed  the  sick.  It  made  the  lame 
leap  as  a  hart,  and  the  tongue  of  the  dumb 
sing.  It  unstopped  deaf  ears  and  gave  the 
blind  their  sight.  Nay,  that  supreme  sign,  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead,  was  found  not  beyond 
its  swift  spell.  Like  the  flaming  sword  that 
kept  the  tree  of  life,  it  turned  every  way.  Like 
some  grand  yet  simple  astronomical  formula,  it 
seemed  to  hold  wrapped  up  in  itself  all  the 
works  of  God.  The  gift  of  tongues  continued 
among  the  disciples  at  large.  There  were 
prophesyings  and  interpretations.  Above  all, 
there  was  a  subtle  convincing  and  persuading 
power  going  with  the  word  spoken,  that  came 
not  from  the  Intrinsic  force  of  the  truth  itself, 
nor  from  the  eloquence  and  abilities  of  the 
speakers,  nor  from  the  signs  and  wonders 
offered  in  evidence  of  their  doctrines,  but  from 
the  direct  action  of  the  Spirit  in  removing  prej- 
udice, opening  the  understanding,  subduing  the 
will  and  renewing  the  heart.  The  direction  of 
their  journeys,  the  places  they  visited,  the  time 
of  their  stay,  were  suggested  to  the  apostles  by 
the  Holy  Ghost.      Not  only  did  God  preside 


270  ECCE    TERRA. 

over  their  spoken  gospel,  but  he  inspired  sev- 
eral among  the  early  disciples  to  put  that  gos- 
pel in  writing  for  the  benefit  of  after-times — 
''  not  in  the  words  that  man's  wisdom  teacheth, 
but  which  the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth." 

Then  mightily  grew  the  word  of  God,  and 
prevailed.  Converts  came  in  crowds — not  only 
in  the  Holy  Land,  but  also  in  adjacent  coun- 
tries. This  success  was  favored  by  some  nat- 
ural circumstances,  such  as  the  decadence  of 
the  old  idolatries,  the  wide  dominance  of  the 
tolerant  Roman  power  and  laws,  the  ease  and 
safety  of  communication  between  all  parts  of 
the  empire  which  Rome  (law,  order  and  road- 
builder  as  she  was)  secured,  the  general  dif- 
fusion of  the  Greek  language,  the  indefatigable 
zeal  and  labors  of  the  primitive  evangelists ; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  were  no  small  oppos- 
ing circumstances  in  the  Jewish  origin  of  Chris- 
tianity, in  the  Cross  of  its  Founder,  in  the  hum- 
ble station  of  its  apostles,  and  especially  in  its 
severe  doctrine  and  morals.  On  the  whole, 
little  account  is  to  be  made  of  this  or  that 
friendly  or  unfriendly  circumstance.  The  open 
secret  of  the  apostolic  triumphs  was  the  di- 
rect perso7ial  divine  action  that  was  back  of 
them.  The  wheels  of  Ezekiel's  chariot  ran 
because  the  Spirit  of  the  Living  One  was  in 
them.     "  Not  by  might,  nor  by  power,  but  by 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        27 1 

my  Spirit."  ''The  Lord  working  with  them  and 
confirming  the  word  by  signs  following" — that 
simply  tells  the  whole  brilliant  story. 

As  the  first  evangelists  went  from  place  to 
place  with  their  conquering  gospel  they  gath- 
ered those  who  accepted  it  into  churches  hav- 
ing sacraments,  public  worship,  a  definite  creed, 
a  discipline  or  government  and  a  teaching  min- 
istry— as  lies  on  the  surface  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  especially  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles. At  the  same  time,  they  gradually  laid 
aside  the  Mosaic  economy  as  being  a  fulfilled 
system — shedding  the  limitations,  wrinkles  and 
cerements  of  the  old  national  religion,  and 
keeping  only  those  vital  elements  which  are 
always  young  and  which  fit  it  to  all  times  and 
countries.  All  under  the  broad  seal  of  their 
commission  as  aposdes  and  by  the  guidance 
of  that  Holy  Ghost  whom  their  Master  had 
plainly  promised  for  their  work.  The  Chris- 
tian institutions  thus  founded  came  from  the 
Hand  as  truly  as  did  the  miracles. 

Dispersion  of  Jews, 
Then  came  the  political  ruin  of  the  Jews. 
As  a  nation  they  had  never  accepted  the  gos- 
pel, and  their  unbelief  was  still  crying,  "  His 
blood  be  on  us  and  on  our  children!"  It  did 
not   cry    in   vain.      Jerusalem  was    compassed 


2/2  LCCE    TERRA. 

with  armies.    Titus  thundered  at  wall  and  eate: 
factions    roared    and    fiercely    fought    within. 
Never  was    such  a  scene,   never  such   suffer- 
ing.    A    city?      'Twas    Gehenna.      Not    Jews 
held    it,    but    demons.       Not    Sanhedrim   gov- 
erned   it,   but    that   grim  triumvirate,    Famine, 
Pestilence    and    Assassination.     Brother   stabs 
brother.       Mothers    have    sodden    their    own 
babes.     The   air    is    putrid    with    corpses,   and 
still  more  putrid  with  wickedness.     Ah,  it  was 
"great  tribulation,  such  as  was   not  from  the 
beginning   of   the  world;    no,   nor  ever   shall 
be."      The   storm   beat  pitilessly;    there  were 
thunderings  and  lightnings  and  quakings  ;  the 
winds  rioted  and  trumpeted  and  wresded  with 
all  their  might  on  tower  and  battlement.     They 
fell.     They  fell  on   the  nation.      More  than  a 
million  of  people  were  crushed  outright.     The 
maimed  survivors  were  mostly  swept  away  to 
other  lands — largely  as  slaves,  and  universally 
as   objects   of   scorn,   hatred   and    persecution. 
They  had  on  them  the  mark  of  Cain ;  never- 
theless, whoever   killed   them  thought  he  was 
doing  God  service.     And  so  it  has  continued 
down  through  bloody  ages  almost  to  our  own 
times.      Scattered    and    peeled,    scouted    and 
scourged    alike    by  sovereign  and    serf,  "dogs 
of  Jews,"  at  whom  rabble  children  might  cast 
stones  unrebuked,  "ground  exceeding  fine  in 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        273 

the  mills  of  the  gods,"  what  people  has  fared 
like  this  ?  And  with  what  strange  result !  Al- 
ways  dying,  but  never  dead ;  always  being  ex- 
terminated, but  never  even  sensibly  diminish- 
ing. Always  tossed  from  vessel  to  vessel,  and 
fiercely  stirred  by  sceptre  and  crozier  and  re- 
publican quarter-staff,  and  yet  refusing  to  mix 
with  the  contents  of  any.  Waifs  and  outcasts 
of  the  world,  yet  kept  as  in  an  ark ;  a  Wan- 
dering Jew  with  unlimited  faculty  of  being  mis- 
erable, but  without  the  faculty  of  dying ;  an 
island  on  all  whose  shores  the  surf  is  always 
breaking,  sometimes  with  the  onset  of  storms, 
but  always  breaking  in  vain,  one  wave  bringing 
back  what  another  has  taken  away. 

Who  destroyed  Jerusalem  ?  The  Romans 
proudly  thought  they  did,  the  Jews  bitterly 
thought  the  same.  And  history,  as  commonly 
written,  tells  merely  of  the  great  commander, 
the  invincible  legions,  the  unity,  discipline  and 
confidence  of  men  on  the  one  side,  and  the  di- 
vision, disprder  and  despair  of  men  on  the 
other.  But  there  was  something  back  of  all 
these — viz.  the  punitive  sceptre  of  God.  This 
was  really  busy  in  heaving  down  the  walls  of 
Jerusalem,  as,  in  the  fancy  of  the  poet,  the 
trident  of  Neptune  was  in  casting  down  the 
walls  of  Troy.  That  disaster  and  the  long 
train    of   disasters   that   followed,   bush   always 

18 


274  ECCE    TERRA. 

on  fire  but  never  consumed,  was  circumstan- 
tially foretold  from  the  time  of  Moses — fore- 
told as  the  penalty  for  wickedness.  And  Jesus 
had  said  with  tearful  eyes,  "  For  the  days  shall 
come  upon  thee  that  thine  enemies  shall  cast 
a  trench  about  thee,  and  compass  thee  round, 
and  keep  thee  in  on  every  side,  and  shall  lay 
thee  even  with  the  ground,  and  thy  children 
within  thee ;  and  they  shall  not  leave  in  thee 
one  stone  upon  another;  because  thou  knew- 
est  not  the  time  of  thy  visitation." 

The  Roman  Victory. 

Up  to  about  this  time  Christianity  had  fought 
unbelief  with  both  moral  and  miraculous  evi- 
dence. But  now  signs  and  wonders  ceased. 
They  could  be  appealed  to  as  historic — indeed, 
as  forming  one  of  the  surest  as  well  as  brightest 
departments  in  the  treasure-house  of  the  past — 
but  henceforth  men  should  not  see  with  their 
own  eyes  the  feats  of  Omnipotence.  Enough 
of  these  had  been  granted  to  warrant  faith  in 
all  time  to  come ;  to  grant  more  would  palsy 
wonder  or  aggravate  condemnation.  So  mir- 
acles disappeared.  Religion  stood  forth  on  the 
field  of  battle  armed  only  with  moral  weapons 
— with  history,  the  written  Scriptures,  unin- 
spired preachers,  the  native  force  of  truth,  the 
Christian  experience  and  life,  a  manifest  supe- 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        2/5 

riority  to  all  other  religions  in  purity  and  reason- 
ableness and  adaptadon  to  the  needs  of  men. 

At  this  moment  imperial  paganism  began  to 
open  its  eyes.  It  had  been  tolerant;  it  had 
been  wont  to  admit  all  gods  to  its  Pantheon  ; 
besides,  was  not  the  new  religion  quite  too 
small  a  matter  to  alarm  the  thrones,  principali- 
ties and  powers  that  swore  by  Olympus  ?  But. 
now  the  little  one  had  become  a  thousand. 
Christians  were  found  in  all  parts  of  the  Ro- 
man empire,  and,  occasionally,  in  the  very 
hio-hest  walks  of  life.  It  was  found  that  the 
new  system  would  not  fellowship  the  old,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  firmly  insisted  on  occupying 
the  world  alone.  The  old  temples  and  altars 
were  getung  neglected.  Priesdy  revenues  and 
reverences  were  running  short.  The  change 
was  beeinninor  to  tell  on  even  Pontifex  Maxi- 
mus  and  Caesar.  So  C^sar  besdrred  himself. 
He  summoned  to  the  batde  all  possible  forces 
— prejudice,  prestige,  pomp  of  worship,  art, 
literature,  philosophy,  social  influence — above 
all,  the  civil  arm  in  the  shape  of  scourges, 
chains,  dungeons,  exiles,  swords,  crosses,  ten 
general  persecutions.  On  the  other  hand, 
Christianity  opposed  with  padence,  blameless 
living,  fearless  tesdmony,  faithful  preaching  of 
the  word,  invincible  constancy,  joyful  martyr- 
doms.    And  these  strange  arms  at  last  seemed 


276  ECCE    TERRA. 

to  conquer.  Not  without  considerable  delay, 
not  without  mighty  struggles,  not  without  seas 
of  blood  mirroring  some  three  millions  of  mar- 
tyr crowns.  But  the  victory  was  at  length  com- 
plete. Olympus  surrendered  at  discretion.  The 
world's  conquerors  themselves  passed  under 
the  yoke.  The  faith  of  the  great  Nazarene 
.came  up  from  the  Catacombs,  and  took  posses- 
sion of  market-places  and  camps  and  schools 
and  temples  and  senate-houses  and  throne. 
Caesar  himself  knelt  at  the  foot  of  the  Cross. 
Was  this  great  victory  gained  by  merely  the 
visible  weapons  used  ?  Doubtless,  truth  is 
mighty.  Doubtless,  the  new  religion  was 
manifestly  superior  to  the  old.  Doubtless, 
there  is  a  commanding  eloquence  in  earnest 
faith,  blameless  living,  heroic  constancy  and 
'Mine  upon  line."  Doubdess,  also,  the  old 
faith  had  some  of  the  infirmities  of  old  age. 
Yet  Gibbon  was  wrong.  Such  facts  are  insuffi- 
cient to  explain  that  Roman  victory.  Naturally, 
the  blazing  bush  would  have  been  consumed 
and  the  stripling  David  have  fallen  an  easy 
prey  to  the  giant.  But  David  stands  with  his 
foot  on  the  huge  warrior  and  gives  thanks  to 
God.  Does  he  mistake?  Did  not  Jesus  say 
even  to  the  apostles,  "  Without  me  ye  can  do 
nothing"?  Did  not  an  apostle  say,  *' I  have 
planted;  Apollos  watered;   but  God  gave  the 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        2// 

Increase"?  Were  not  the  apostles,  even  while 
miracle-workinor  in  the  habit  of  invokin^^  divine 
power  that  the  word  of  God  might  have  free 
course  and  be  glorified  ?  How  certain,  then, 
is  it  that  the  uninspired  and  non-miracle-work- 
ing successors  of  the  apostles  must  have  had  a 
divine  power  to  give  them  success  !  No  be- 
liever in  the  Scriptures  doubts  it.  The  Roman 
victory  over  Romans  was  supernaturally  won. 
In  advance  of  the  sword  of  Gideon  waved  in- 
visibly a  much  more  effulgent  and  efficient 
weapon — the  sword  of  the  Lord, 

The  Continental  Victory. 
After  a  while  came  another  victory — a  vic- 
tory out  of  the  very  jaws  of  defeat.  Christian- 
ity gradually  became  corrupted  by  alliance  with 
the  state  and  other  causes.  Antichrist  appear- 
ed. Ritualisms,  hierarchies,  traditions  and  su- 
perstitions largely  covered  up  the  simple  gospel 
and  its  simple  institutions.  Buried  under  heaps 
of  rubbish  and  clogging  material,  what  can  that 
gospel  alone  do  to  spread  itself  over  all  Europe? 
When  in  all  its  native  purity  and  freedom,  also 
armed  with  miracles,  it  still  needed  in  addition 
the  convincing  and  converting  power  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  in  person  in  order  to  succeed: 
after  miracles  were  withdrawn  it  needed  that 
divine   help  still   more,  if  possible ;    and   after 


278  ECCE    TERRA. 

both  miracles  and  purity  had  gone,  and  gross 
corruptions  of  doctrines  and  practice  had  come 
— come  into  the  camp  of  Israel  and  eaten  the 
bowstrings  and  rusted  the  swords  and  spears 
of  the  host — it  needed  such  personal  divine 
help  still  more  to  make  its  way.  Yet  its  way 
was  made. 

Hear  the  sound  of  a  mighty  rushing !  Is  it 
the  coming  of  hurricanes  ?  Is  it  the  downpour 
of  torrents  and  rocks  from  the  Alps?  Yes, 
torrents  and  avalanches  of  wild  and  ruthless 
men — men  who  worship  Odin  and  Freia,  Thor 
and  Balder,  who  drink  human  blood  out  of  hu- 
man skulls,  spend  life  In  alternate  feasting  and 
bloodshed,  desire  nothing  better  for  themselves, 
hope  to  spend  an  eternity  In  the  same  way. 
Down  come  Goths,  Huns,  Vandals — down  come 
Alarics  and  Attllas,  scourges  of  God,  sweeping 
before  them  an  enervate  people  as  the  swollen 
Po  in  spring  sweeps  along  the  dry  leaves  and 
straws  of  winter.  Surely  the  falling  empire 
will  carry  down  with  it  its  religion  !  Surely 
the  floods  of  paganism  will  paganize  every- 
thing— will  bury  the  Ghrlstian  faith  and  institu- 
tions wholly  out  of  sight !  Not  so.  The  Idols 
disappear.  Disappear  the  savage  orgies  and 
human  sacrifices.  Odin  and  his  Walhalla  sur- 
render at  discretion,  as  Jupiter  and  his  Olym- 
pus have  already  done.     The  conquerors  are 


ILLUSTRATION  BY   GREAT  EXAMPLES.        279 

conquered.  The  true  God  passes  the  Alps, 
enters  the  German  cabins,  crosses  into  Britain, 
summers  and  winters,  cross  in  hand,  among  the 
hardy  Northmen.  So  the  fall  of  Rome  was  the 
conversion  of  Europe.  The  converts,  it  is  true, 
were  still  rude  and  ignorant  and  superstitious, 
but  as  compared  with  their  former  selves  they 
were  new  creatures.  It  was  a  change  from 
midnight  to  morning,  from  midwinter  to  spring, 
from  mortal  sickness  to  convalescence.  Such 
a  result  in  the  absence  of  miracles,  and  con- 
sidering how  the  Samson  of  apostolic  times  had 
been  shorn  of  much  of  his  proper  strength, 
required  even  a  mightier  interposition  of  the 
Hand  than  was  needed  when  religion  was 
purer,  and  especially  when  it  was  armed  with 
siens  and  wonders. 

The  Reformation  and  Refo7^mers, 
But  men  gravitate  wonderfully.  The  Evil 
One  also  bears  them  downward  with  a  heavy 
hand.  And  so  at  last  Christian  Europe  reaches 
so  low  a  level  that  the  day  is  almost  as  night. 
The  Dark  Ages?  Yes,  almost  subterranean 
in  regard  to  religion.  The  Bible  banished  and 
vanished,  "contradicting  and  blaspheming"  tra- 
ditions of  men  raised  to  its  vacant  throne ; 
everywhere  doctrines  and  practices,  principles 
and   institutions,   of   which   the   aposdes   never 


28o  ECCE    TERRA. 

heard — image-worship,  indulgences,  priesdy 
omnipotence,  salvation  by  sacrament  and  rit- 
ual, "  Mary,  queen  of  heaven,"  "  our  Lord  God 
the  Pope  "  !  Shocking !  Is  this  real  Christian- 
ity, this  the  true  Church  of  Jesus  Christ?  It  is 
scarcely  more  than  the  old  paganism  revived 
and  baptized.  A  Roman  of  the  first  century, 
revisiting  the  earth  and  his  old  haunts,  would 
think  the  temples  still  occupied  by  the  old  di- 
vinities. He  would  find  the  same  statues  and 
altars,  smell  the  same  incense,  hear  the  same 
unintelligible  mumbling,  see  the  same  ridicu- 
lous pantomime  and  millinery,  witness  priest 
and  people  doing  the  same  wickedness. 
Only  the  Pontifex  Maximus  is  now  Pope 
Leo    X. 

"  But  out  of  the  eater  came  forth  meat,  and 
out  of  the  strong  came  forth  sweetness."  From 
the  corrupt  carcass  of  the  lion  appeared  the 
Protestant  Reformation.  This  Reformation, 
with  many  a  sore  set-back  during  more  than 
three  centuries,  has  gradually  encroached  much 
on  all  papal  territory,  has  won  its  way  to  a  com- 
manding position  in  the  chief  European  coun- 
tries, has  fairly  appropriated  to  itself  the  North 
American  continent,  and  is  now  vigorously 
pushing  out  conquering  detachments  into  all 
quarters  of  the  globe. 

Now,  it  is  not  to  numbers  and  might  of  men 


ILL  USTRA  TION  B  Y  GREA  T  EXAMPLES.       28 1 

that  such  victories,  from  Luther  downward,  can 
be  attributed.     The  stars  in  their  courses  have 
fouo-ht  aeainst  Sisera.     That  Protestant  Refor- 
mation  !    Will  arms  account  for  it  ?    They  were 
on  the  other  side.    The  Christianity  and  Church 
of  the  time?     These   were   more   corrupt,  and 
therefore  weaker  for  enlightening  and  convert- 
ing men,  than  ever  before,  and  were  adminis- 
tered by  men  who  were  successors  of  the  apos- 
des  only  in  name.      Leprous  men   never  cure 
themselves.     Desperately  diseased  bodies  must 
have  help  from  abroad.     Did  help  come  from 
natural  principles  and  agencies  outside  of  Chris- 
tianity and  its  insUtutions — for  example,  from 
larger  knowledge,  better  government,  greater 
freedom,  the  Renaissance  of  literature,  learning 
and  art?    These,  on  Bible  principles,  have  even 
less  reforming  and  lifting  power  than  a  corrupt 
Christianity,  for,  by  supposition,  they  have  ab- 
solutely nothing  of  the    Christian    element  in 
them.     So,  even  more  than  in  the   case  men- 
tioned before,  the  Bible  sends  us  to  the  Holy 
Ghost,  to  the  personal  agency  of  God,  for  ex- 
planation   of   Luther  and    Calvin   and   Zuingle 
and  their  successors.     For  it  tells  us  that  a  per- 
fectly pure  Christianity  in  the  hands  of  inspired 
and  miracle-working  aposdes  was  insufficient  to 
this  class  of  results.     Much  more  such  a  drossy 
Christianity  as  Europe  had  at  the  beginning  of 


282  ECCE    TERRA. 

the   sixteenth   century   In   the  hands   of  a   still 
more  drossy  priesthood  and  executive. 

As  to  the  general  advance  of  Protestantism 
since,  we  are  compelled  to  the  same  philosophy. 
Without  such  enlightening  and  persuading  di- 
vine power  as  comes  in  answer  to  prayer  the 
word  of  God  would  never  have  had  free  course 
and  been  glorified  as  it  has.  Neither  in  purity 
of  doctrine  nor  in  personal  qualifications  for 
their  work  were  the  early  Reformers,  or  any 
of  their  successors  down  to  the  present,  peers 
of  those  inspired  apostles  who  were  "  empow- 
ered from  on  high,"  and  the  gold  of  whose 
teaching  was  without  any  dross.  Yet  even 
these  peerless  men,  with  an  absolutely  pure 
gospel,  had  to  cry  heavenward  for  success. 
To  them  Paul  was  nothing,  Apollos  nothing, 
but  God  who  gave  the  increase  much.  What, 
then,  are  these  modern  apostles  ?  I  profess  a 
tolerably  high  respect  for  Luther  and  his  asso- 
ciates and  their  shinine  wake  of  reformino-  and 
evangelizing  men  adown  the  ages.  But  one 
can,  without  much  difficulty,  find  a  good  many 
reasonable  stones  to  cast  at  the  best  of  them. 
They  often  lacked  judgment  as  interpreters 
and  proclaimers  of  the  gospel.  They  made 
many  a  mistake.  Many  a  rag  of  the  old  flut- 
tered on  their  new  garments.  They  were  often 
useful    only  by  being   overruled.     They  were 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        283 

very  far  from  being  such  planters  and  water- 
ers  as  Paul  and  Apollos ;  and  must  not  God 
have  given  them  such  increase  as  they  had  ? 
The  doctrine  of  all  of  them  was,  ''  Except  the 
Lord  build  the  house,  they  labor  in  vain  that 
build  it." 

The  Roman  apostasy  was  a  great  enemy  to 
Christianity — even  greater  than  the  Moham- 
medanism and  Paganism  with  which  a  collat- 
eral  contest  has  been  successfully  waged.  But 
since  the  Protestant  Reformation,  and  notably 
in  our  own  time,  has  appeared  a  greater  enemy 
still.  I  mean  pseudo-science — attacking  religion 
in  its  very  primary  sources,  and  too  often  doing 
it  from  positions  of  dignity  and  influence  to 
which  it  has  been  helped,  and  in  which  it  has 
been  maintained,  by  the  official  and  pledged 
guardians  of  religion. 

I. 

Out  of  a  mountain 

That  rose  beyond  sight, 
Struggled  a  fountain 

Into  the  sunlight. 

Fed  by  the  whiteness 

That  gleams  evermore 
On  the  far  summit, 

The  water  ran  o'er, 

And,  downward  moving 
Like  a  molten  ray. 


284  ECCE    TERRA. 

Cheerily  singing, 

At  length  found  its  way 

To  the  wide  lowlands  ; 

And  then  sparkled  on, 
Past  farms  and  cities, 

A  broad  silver  zone ; 

Wider  and  wider, 
As  the  lands  went  by, 

Richer  and  richer 
With  hues  of  the  sky ; 

Till,  a  broad  river, 
With  sunset  aflame. 

Home  to  the  ocean 
In  triumph  it  came. 

Ah,  what  green  beauty. 
What  plenty  and  glee, 

As  smiled  that  water 
From  mountain  to  sea ! 

■^  All  things  drank  of  it, 

And  broke  into  psalm, 
From  the  wall-hyssop 
To  cedar  and  palm ; 

From  clouds  of  insects 
That  dip  treble  wing, 

To  crowds  of  mankind 
Who  bass  anthems  sing. 

Laughed  the  fat  pastures. 
Shouted  corn  and  vine ; 

Flocks  and  herds  shouted— 
The  water  was  wine. 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.         285 

II. 

A  spring  so  precious, 

So  vital  to  all, 
Of  course  had  round  it 

A  guard  and  a  wall. 

"Now  mind,  ye  keepers! 

Keep  this  your  charge  well ; 
Far  from  its  margin 
All  vile  things  repel. 

"Let  naught  whatever, 
Whate'er  be  the  plea, 
Mix  with  these  waters 
That  go  to  the  sea. 

"Night  and  day  watching, 
No  risk  must  befall 
The  bright  sweet  waters 
So  vital  to  all. 

Will  you  be  faithful?" — 
"We  will,  yes,  we  will." — 
"This  double  promise 
Be  sure  you  fulfdl." 

III. 

Sang  the  days  onward, 

Months  went  and  came, 
The  guard  grew  careless — 

'Twas  guard  but  in  name. 

Just  then  a  stranger, 

In  dress  like  a  sage. 
His  beard  long  flowing 

And  snow-white  with  age, 


286 


ECCE    TERRA. 

Greeted  the  watchmen — 
Would  fain  see  the  spring; 

Thought  he  could  help  it 
With  drugs  he  could  bring. 

His  name?     'Twas  Science — 
Great  things  had  he  done; 

Would  they  see  greater? 
Then  grant  him  his  boon. 

His  words  came  smoothly, 
His  promise  was  grand; 

They  took  his  promise, 
And  gave  him  their  hand. 

A  dark  specific 

They  helped  to  compound; 
To  flask  they  helped  him. 

Then  helped  to  the  ground: 

The  gate  swung  open — 
So  gave  him  to  stand 

Hard  by  the  fountain, 
With  flask  in  his  hand. 

Down  went  the  contents 
With  a  startling  hiss  : 

Was  it  a  demon  ? 
The  spring  shuddered,  *'Yes! 

But  that  grim  wedlock 
It  could  not  then  flee; 

So  sped  together. 

From  mountain  to  sea. 

Angel  and  demon. 
Blessing  and  bane; 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       287 

But  bane  was  master 
All  through  to  the  main. 

Faded  each  grass-blade, 

Not  a  worm  that  drank 
That  water  possessed 

But  its  life-pulse  sank. 

Thin  grew  the  cattle, 

The  birds  ceased  their  song, 
Sick  fell  the  cities 

That  river  along. 

The  fiend-breath,  rising 

In  a  hot,  thick  mist, 
Lay  on  the  waters 

As  they  foamed  and  hissed— 

Lay  like  a  serpent 

The  landscape  along; 
Then  writhed  and  parted 

As  the  winds  grew  strong; 

Parted  and  floated. 
In  many  a  cloud, 

The  broad  land  over- 
Each  cloud  was  a  shroud 

Where  dead  men  rotted; 

And  the  air  grew  fell 
With  a  new  fiend-breath 

From  a  new-made  hell. 

IV. 
Now  tell  me  truly, 

Ye  that  hear  my  tale. 
Which  the  more  guilty 

In  reason's  just  scale — 


288  ECCE    TERRA. 

That  sage-like  stranger 

Who  cast  in  the  bane 
That  went  forth  wasting 

From  fountain  to  main  ? 

Or  those  strange  keepers, 

Promising  so  fair, 
Hands  on  the  Gospels, 

No  taint  should  come  there, 

Yet  both  hands  lending 

To  help  to  the  spring. 
Of  tramps  the  Satan, 

Of  poisons  the  King  ? 

It  is  hardly  necessary  for  us  to  answer  this 
question.  Good  causes  have  always  suffered 
more  from  the  mistakes  and  misconduct  of  their 
pledged  friends  than  from  all  other  sources. 
Especially  has  the  Christian  cause  found  its 
greatest  hindrances  and  harms,  as  well  as  Its 
greatest  helps,  in  those  within  its  own  pale. 
Had  it  not  been  for  the  unworthy  living  of 
many  professed  Christians,  Christianity  would 
long  ere  this  have  possessed  the  world.  Christ 
^  was  really  crucified  by  Judas.  The  primitive 
Church  became  the  papal  through  the  ambi- 
tions and  speculations  and  unfaithfulness  of  its 
official  teachers.  Through  such  teachers,  along 
the  succeeding  centuries,  came  in  the  chief  her- 
esies that  menaced,  distracted  and  disabled  the 
Church   of  the   Reformation.     In   more   recent 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       289 

years  pulpits  and  presses  and  institutions  of 
learning,  not  a  few,  which  had  been  established 
and  endowed  in  the  interest  of  rehgion,  and 
which  still  were  under  ecclesiastical  supervision, 
have  been  handed  over  bodily  to  the  enemy. 
The  same  mischief  is  still  going  on,  and  in  the 
same  way.  Some  of  the  best  fountains  of  cul- 
ture and  influence  ever  consecrated  to  Christ 
and  humanity  are  having  the  virus  of  unbelief 
in  its  worst  form  infused  into  them  at  the  hands 
of  men  in  the  uniform  of  science  who  have  been 
introduced  into  their  places,  and  are  maintained^ 
in  them,  by  the  official  guardians  of  the  religion 
they  are  attacking.  We  shall  not  attempt  to 
divide  the  guilt  between  principal  and  subal- 
terns, between  the  pseudo-science  that  casts  in 
the  bane  and  those  who  bring  the  poisoner  to 
the  brink  of  the  fountain.  It  is  certain  that 
the  Lord  does  and  will  fight  against  both  of 
these  parties — will  hold  them  to  a  severe  ac- 
count for  the  mischief  they  have  done  or  al- 
lowed ;  will,  finally,  by  his  consummate  anti- 
dotes freely  cast  in,  restore  to  the  great  spring 
its  normal  purity  and  sweetness.  We  do  not 
know  how  long  this  victory  will  linger ;  it  is 
possible  that  religion  may  yet  see  dark  days ; 
but  this  we  know,  that  in  the  end  all  the  clouds 
will  be  swept  away  and  the  sun  come  forth  tri- 
umphantly.    And  it  will  be  not  so  much  from 

19 


290  ECCE    TERRA. 

the  powers  of  the  men  who  are  "vaHant  for  the 
truth  on  the  earth,"  not  so  much  from  the  might 
of  our  apologetics  and  of  the  eloquence  of 
Christian  orators  and  scholars,  as  by  the  secret 
currents  of  divine  force  in  these,  combined  with 
those  providential  workings  which  so  often  in 
the  past  have  suddenly  torn  the  mask  from  false 
science  and  overwhelmed  it  with  confusion.  No 
doubt  the  friends  of  truth  will  be  exceedingly 
vigilant  and  active.  The  simple  will  be  taught 
to  "avoid  profane  babblings  and  oppositions  of 
science,  falsely  so  called."  The  guardians  of 
the  young  will  take  large  precautions  in  their 
behalf  against  the  "  scoffers  to  come  in  the  last 
days,"  who  will  scoff  in  the  name  of  the  laws  of 
nature,  saying,  "All  things  continue  as  they  were 
from  the  beginning."  Full  surely  the  men  of 
war  will  set  themselves  in  array,  the  champions 
will  "willingly  offer  themselves  in  the  high 
places  of  the  field,"  the  Davids  will  sling  their 
stones  into  the  forehead  of  Unbelief — in  short, 
Christians  will  "  contend  earnestly  for  the  faidi 
once  delivered  to  the  saints."  But  these  thines 
will  be  mere  conditions  of  the  final  victory.  The 
conquering  y^'/r^i'  will  be  His  who  "giveth  wis- 
dom," who  "  taketh  the  wise  in  their  own  crafti- 
ness," who  is  the  "Author  and  Finisher  of  faith," 
who  says,  "  not  by  might  nor  by  power,  but  by 
my  Spirit."     It  will  be  by  the  might  of  prayer, 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        29 1 

saying,  "  Oh  send  out  thy  Hght  and  thy  truth." 
It  will  be  by  the  faithfulness  of  Him  who  has 
promised  that  '*  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  pre- 
vail." It  will  be  by  revivals  of  religion  unstop- 
ping deaf  ears,  unsealing  blind  eyes,  shining  on 
both  the  written  and  unwritten  word,  makino- 
men  both  honest  and  earnest  in  their  inquiries, 
giving  them  *'  the  demonstration  of  the  Spirit." 
In  a  word,  it  will  be  by  the  same  Hand  that  has 
really  gained  all  the  former  victories  of  religion. 

Armageddon. 

In  course  of  time  the  successes  of  Christ 
in  the  world  will  rouse  the  elements  of  evil  to 
a  great  combination  against  him.  ''This  will 
never  do.  If  matters  go  on  in  this  way  we  are 
lost.  Up!  up!  all  ye  haters  and  unfriends  of 
God  and  the  Bible,  in  whatever  land  dwelling, 
whatever  your  language,  nationality,  color  or 
social  position  !  Do  you  not  see  whither  all 
this  is  tending?  Are  you  ready  to  disappear 
from  the  world,  to  go  into  eternal  banishment, 
to  hand  over  all  the  world's  treasures  and  pleas- 
ures and  freedoms  to  the  torch  of  a  grim  super- 
stition ?  Let  us  stop  wrangling  among  our- 
selves for  a  while,  and  make  a  common  cause 
against  a  common  foe."  Lo,  the  scattered 
clouds,  gradually  taking  courage  from  their 
fast-increasing  number,  at  last  draw   together 


292  ECCE    TERRA. 

into  one  dense  blackness,  and  with  Satan  blow- 
ing hard  behind  them  for  an  east  wind,  sweep 
up  to  Armageddon.  All  idolatries  and  papacies 
and  false  prophets ;  all  unbeliefs,  superstitions, 
false  philosophies,  heresies,  mammons,  vices, 
respectable  ungodliness,  castes,  oppressions, — 
here  they  are  in  one  compact  array  and  with 
the  port  of  Mars.  It  was  to  have  been  ex- 
pected. It  is  ever  the  way  of  fighters,  from 
the  days  of  Demetrius  and  his  fellow-craftsmen, 
backward  and  forward,  when  hard  pressed  and 
they  have  no  quarter  to  expect,  to  stand  at  bay 
together,  gather  courage  from  desperation,  and, 
if  need  be,  die  hard.  And  this  is  what  the  Bible 
says  the  enemies  of  the  truth  will  do  in  the  last 
days.  The  dragon  and  the  beast  and  the  false 
prophet  will  send  out  their  emissaries  in  every 
direction  and  ally  themselves  with  as  many 
"  powers  "  as  possible  (ambitions,  greeds,  lusts, 
arts,  literatures  and  sciences  so  called,  and 
other  "  rulers  of  the  darkness  of  the  world "), 
and,  sinkine  for  a  time  their  mutual  antacjo- 
nisms  in  view  of  the  common  danger,  will  orga- 
nize a  common  battle  ao-ainst  the  common  foe. 
It  will  be  a  ereat  battle.  Behold  Satan's  for- 
lorn  hope !  Behold  the  "  people  and  nations 
and  kindred  and  tongues "  of  error  and  sin 
fighting  for  very  life !  Now  or  Never  !  is  their 
battle-cry. 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        293 

Well,  Never  let  it  be  !  All  Is  lost.  Despite 
desperation,  despite  numbers  and  unity  and 
hell,  all  is  lost.  And  by  whom  or  what  does 
the  enemy  suffer  this  Waterloo  at  Armaged- 
don? (See  Rev.  19.)  Heaven  is  roused.  Its 
armies  march.  They  are  led  by  One  on  whose 
vesture  is  written,  "  King  of  kings  and  Lord 
of  lords."  And  when  battle  is  joined,  what  an 
overthrow  of  the  evil  powers !  Never  such  be- 
fore. "  Ho,  all  ye  fowls  that  fly  in  the  midst 
of  heaven !  come  and  gather  yourselves  to- 
gether unto  the  supper  of  the  great  God  ;  that 
ye  may  eat  the  flesh  of  kings,  and  the  flesh  of 
captains,  and  the  flesh  of  mighty  men."  Through 
this  veil  of  vivid  symbolism  shines  clearly  the 
giant  fact  that  it  will  be  by  the  coming  forth  of 
the  supejniatural  that  the  great  victory  will  be 
gained.  Whatever  natural  forces  may  be  busy, 
whatever  preaching  and  giving  and  writing  and 
example  in  defence  of  the  truth  Christian  work- 
ers may  contribute,  will  be  so  marshaled  and 
energized  and  supplemented  by  the  Hand  that 
to  it  will  mainly  belong  the  honors  of  the  day. 
It  will  be  the  "  day  of  God  Almighty." 

The  Millennium. 

The  issue  ?  As  stars  come  out,  one  after 
another,  on  the  evening  sky  till  the  whole  vault 
is  ablaze — as,  in  some  great  inundation,  stream 


294  ECCE    TERRA. 

mingles  with  stream  and  pool  adds  itself  to  pool 
till   the  whole   district,  lowland  and  upland,  is 
one  broad  shining  sea — so  the  reformations  just 
noticed  will  go  on  multiplying  and  meeting  each 
other  (not  without  many  serious  breaks  in  the 
advance,  it  may  be)   until  the  whole  world  is 
*'  full  of  the  knowledge  and  glory  of  the  Lord.'' 
See,  Babylon,  the  mother  of  abominations,  has 
fallen !     Fallen   is  the   False  Prophet.     Boodh 
and  Brahma  and  every  other  modern  idol  and 
fetish  lie,  like  the  Olympian  deities  and  Dagon, 
prostrate  and  broken  on  their  own  threshold. 
Unbelief — where  is   it?      Where  are  the  men 
who  have  no  religion  at  all?     The  "scientific" 
men,  the  men  of  "advanced  thought,"  the  men 
so  knowing  that  they  know  nothing  of  God  or 
Christ  or  inspired  Bible  or  soul  or  hereafter? 
The   materialists,   the   pantheists,   the   skeptics, 
the  agnostics,  the  "philosophers,"  the  fungi  of 
our  culture   and  cancers  of  our  civilization, — 
what  has  become  of   them  ?      Vanished  quite. 
Faith  is  practically  universal ;   and  such  faith ! 
The  very  souls  of  the  martyrs  have  come  back, 
and  are  sitting  on  thrones  all  over  the  world. 
The  Great  Martyr  himself  is  in   the   midst  of 
them,   before   whose   throne    all   other  thrones 
are  dim  and  low,  and  whose  sun  makes  their 
stars.     "And  they  lived  and  reigned  with  Christ 
a  thousand  years."     Their  mighty  faith,  their 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       295 

unconquerable  principle,  their  sublime  lives,  are 
royally  governing  in  every  land.  "  Born  in  the 
purple,"  worthy  to  reign,  undisputed  and  indis- 
putable sovereigns,  not  even  Solomon  in  all 
his  glory  was  arrayed  like  the  least  of  these. 
How  much  less  like  this  Greatest,  on  whose 
head  are  many  crowns  !  Long  live  the  King ! 
And  the  little  children  all  over  the  world  are 
crying  Hosannas  to  Him  who  has  come  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord ;  and  mightily  swells  around 
that  tender  music  the  chording  bass  of  nations 
and  peoples  and  tongues,  and  bears  it  heaven- 
ward as  the  ocean  sweeps  aloft  the  foam. 

And  now  the  wolf  and  lamb  lie  down  to- 
gether. Wars  have  ceased.  Prisons  are  emp- 
ty. Civil  governments  have  become  a  shadow 
for  weight ;  and  in  its  coolness  the  weary  na- 
tions repose.  Knowledge  is  the  roof-tree  of 
every  house,  and  its  yellow  fruit,  low  hanging, 
can  be  plucked  from  every  window.  Science 
and  Art  imitate  from  afar  the  miracles  of  God. 
Men  have  forgotten  to  be  sick.  Want  has  for- 
gotten  the  way  to  men's  houses.  Above  all, 
men  are  no  longer  praying,  "  Thy  kingdom 
come,  thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  done  in 
heaven."  Why  should  they  continue  to  ask 
for  that  they  have  already  fully  received?  Holi- 
ness is  written  on  the  very  bells  of  the  horses. 
The  earth  is  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord. 


296  ECCE    TERRA. 

Blessed  consummation  !  Will  It  be  by  nat- 
ural tendency  of  human  society,  by  blind,  re- 
sistless law  pushing  slowly  up  through  the  ages, 
till  at  last  the  race  will  find  itself  on  those  lofty 
table-lands  where  the  air  Is  so  pure,  the  light 
so  strong  and  the  oudook  so  grand  ?  Script- 
ure, history  and  experience  tell  us  that  the  tend- 
ency of  human  nature  Is  downward  rather  than 
upward  (pray,  what  parent  does  not  know  It?) 
— even  that  very  strong  forces  from  without 
must  be  brought  Into  play  to  overcome  this 
gravity,  and  that  even  such  are  generally  insuf- 
ficient. Will  it  be  by  Chrlsdans,  Mohammed- 
like, going  forth  to  the  nations  with  the  Bible 
In  one  hand  and  the  sword  In  the  other?  Not 
so  have  the  past  successes  of  Christianity  been 
gained ;  and  nothing  is  farther  from  its  thought 
to-day  than  the  idea  of  spreading  itself  through 
the  world  by  outward  force.  We  have  been 
taught  by  our  religion  Itself  that  the  only  sword 
we  are  to  wield  in  Its  behalf  Is  the  sword  of  the 
Spirit ;  that  men  are  sancdfied  by  the  truth ; 
that  it  pleases  God  by  the  foolishness  of  preach- 
ing to  save  them  who  believe.  Will  it  be  by 
policy  and  diplomacy  and  statecraft  and  patron- 
age of  the  great  and  chance  freshets  of  favoring 
circumstances?  Very  likely  that  the  dmes  and 
various  circumstances  will,  to  some  extent,  be 
propitious — that  good  men  will  labor  zealously, 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       2g7 

take  pains  to  act  discreetly,  like  Paul  study  a 
sacred  policy  in  dealing  with  the  prejudices  and 
passions  of  men,  accommodate  themselves  care- 
fully to  the  common  relations  of  cause  and  ef- 
fect in  their  efforts  to  advance  religion.  But 
this  I  know,  as  every  student  of  the  Bible 
knows,  that  such  things  are  merely  conditions 
under  which  God  himself  potentially  works ; 
that  free  institutions,  general  education,  the 
growth  of  linguistic  and  commercial  facilities 
for  spreading  the  truth,  Christian  eloquence 
and  learning  and  alms  and  prestiges,  mission- 
ary organizations,  nursing  kings  and  queens, — 
all  such  things,  are  merely  ushers  and  hand- 
maids to  the  supernatural,  are  merely  the  race- 
ways through  which  pours  the  current  of  that 
divine  Force  that  works  all  things  after  the 
counsel  of  Its  own  will.  Very  likely  these  race- 
ways will  be  covered  ones,  as  they  are  now, 
and  no  outward  looking  will  be  able  to  discover 
the  forceful  supernatural  that  pours  within ; 
but,  for  all  that,  this  is  w^hat  will  really  set  In 
motion  all  the  wheels  of  the  last  victorious 
evano-ellsm. 

The  Christian  philosophy  of  this  is  plainly 
the  same  as  that  of  those  preliminary  successes 
already  noticed.  If  Inspired  apostles,  with 
hand  and  thoug^ht  full  of  the  mi^ht  of  mir- 
acles,  with  a  gospel  fresh  from  Its  source  and 


298  ECCE    TERRA. 

clear  as  crystal  pouring  like  a  river  from 
tongue  and  lips,  needed  a  further  divine  inter- 
position, how  much  more  will  it  be  needed  by 
the  less  royally  furnished  workmen  of  later 
times  as  they  strain  toward  the  latter-day 
glory !  But  there  is  more  direct  testimony. 
Read  Isa.  65,  also  Rev.  18  and  19.  You  see 
Babylon  falling  from  her  seven  hills  by  the 
hand  of  "  the  Lord  God  who  judgeth  her." 
You  see  an  angel  sent  down  from  heaven  "  to 
chain  Satan  and  cast  him  into  the  pit,  and  shut 
him  up,  and  set  a  seal  upon  him  that  he  should 
deceive  the  nations  no  more  for  a  thousand 
years."  And  thus  you  see  that  the  "  Lord  God 
will  cause  righteousness  and  praise  to  spring 
forth  before  all  the  nations." 


Men  gaze  on  the  structure 
With  a^e-smitten  eyes  : 

Is  the  Titan  earth-born, 
Or  child  of  the  skies  ? 


How  earnest  thou  hither, 

Galaxy  of  rock  ! 
Didst  come  from  a  fire-mist, 
Whose  thoughtless  laws  mock 

Thought,  or,  on  a  sudden, 
Did  some  thunder-shock, 

Serving  as  rough  midwife, 
Nature's  womb  unlock. 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       299 

» 

And  give  us  Athene, 

A  goddess  full  grown, 
In  armor  celestial, 

And  done  into  stone? 

List  ye  to  my  answer: 

Architect  makes  plan, 
Then  sends  for  his  workmen, 

His  work  gives  each  man. 

They  lay  the  foundations, 

Cruciform  and  vast, 
Deep  down  on  a  rock-bed 

That  for  ever  shall  last; 

Then  hew  the  fair  marbles, 

Set  block  upon  block, 
From  head  of  the  corner, 

Till  at  last  they  knock 

At  the  door  of  heaven 

For  walls  that  have  come, 
Upright  as  its  justice, 

To  pray  for  a  dome; 

And  to  get  such  copy, 

As  prayers  best  can, 
Of  that  spangled  buckler 

That  nightly  shields  man. 

Arch  mimic  shield  grandly, 

Ye  workmen  on  high ; 
With  jewels  on  sapphire. 

So  fashion  your  sky. 

Then  let  it  down  gently — 
So  gently  let  down 


30O  ECCE    TERRA. 

As  on  a  new  monarch 
They  set  his  fair  crown. 

Along  with  this  outward 

And  its  musical  din, 
Twin  glory  and  music 

Have  ripened  within. 

Columns  bear  up  heaven; 

Pictured  windows  stain 
Sculptured  woods  and  marbles 
With  their  pageant  rain — 

Sculptured  woods  and  marbles. 

Litanies  and  songs, 
Whose  thunders  of  silence 

Silence  human  tongues! 

At  last  all  is  finished, 

Through  smiles  and  through  tears 
Of  earth's  fickle  weather, 

As  days  spell  out  years — 

Gloriously  finished  ! 

A  miracle  in  stone  ! 
Stand  off  and  gaze  on  it, 

Ye  pilgrims,  each  one, 

And  say  that  such  marvel. 

Such  stone  jubilee, 
Is  worth  a  whole  lifetime 

Of  journey  to  see. 

Ay,  say  that  such  temple, 

So  grand  and  so  fair. 
The  broad  earth  saw  never 

Triumphing  through  air. 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        3OI 

Hail,  stone  constellation! 

Hail,  solid  sunlight! 
Hail,  Salem  the  Golden! 

With  awe  and  delight 

I  gaze  on  thy  greatness, 

Whose  glory  defies 
That  men  should  not  call  thee 

A  child  of  the  skies. 

Heart!  leap  like  a  charger 

That  glory  to  see; 
What  heart  does  no  leaping 

Is  no  heart  for  me. 

Ho!  set  the  chimes  ringing 

Close  to  heaven's  ear, 
And  sing  out  Te  Deums 

Till  all  the  world  hear. 

For  not  by  mere  nature, 

Say  men  what  they  may, 
Does  Salem  the  Golden 

Flood  earth  with  its  day. 

Can  dead  quarries  flower 

Into  such  a  fane, 
If  God  to  our  prayers 

Add  not  his  Amen  ? 

Nay,  God  is  the  Builder; 

His  hand  and  his  thought, 
Though  much  served  by  nature, 

Count  nature  but  naught 

As  aid  in  the  framing. 
Or  aid  in  the  plan. 


302  ECCE    TERRA. 

Of  this  grandest  temple 
That  ever  held  man. 

Tell  not  of  the  "science''^ 

That  tells  not  of  God : 
'Tis  only  pretender, 

That  sees  but  the  sod, 

Nor  cries  with  eyes  lifted. 
And  voice  full  of  awe, 
'"Tis  God  the  Almighty, 
And  not  mighty  law, 

"That  built  the  great  heaven; 
Then  build  to  accord 
Thy  temple  of  temples, 
O  Church  of  the  Lord  !" 

The  Last  Day. 
Each  man  has  his  last  day.     To  each  a  sun 
rises  of  which  he  never  sees  the  settino-,  or  a 
sun   sets   of   which    he   never  sees   the   rising-. 

o 

Rosy  dawns  will  ascend,  hours  crowned  with 
light  go  treading  gayly  over  the  earth ;  but  not 
for  hiin.  Fast  locked  up  in  his  narrow  coffer, 
laid  away  deeply  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  he 
lies  in  stiff  unconsciousness  of  the  long  proces- 
sion above  him  of  days  and  seasons  and  ages. 

Families  have  their  last  day.  Households 
part  never  to  meet  again.  Ancient  lines, 
dating  back  beyond  the  Conquest,  at  last 
come  to  an  end.  The  ancestral  mansion  is 
vacant,   the  tide  is  extinct,  the  estates  revert 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.       303 

to  the  State.  In  almost  every  community 
''  there  Is  one  alone,  he  hath  neither  child  nor 
brother,"  and  his  last  day  will  be  the  last  of 
his  name  and  race. 

States  also  have  their  last  day.  Where  are 
the  thrones  of  Carthage  and  Tyre,  of  Assyria 
and  Egypt,  of  Macedon  and  Rome?  All  gone, 
like  extinct  individuals  and  families.  After  de- 
fying the  trickle  and  the  flood,  the  rust  and  the 
battle  of  centuries,  they  at  last  gave  way.  One 
sun  arose  on  them  still  breathing,  the  next 
found  them  only  matters  of  history.  In  the 
interval  they  had  passed  from  something  to 
nothing.  And  other  states  occupied  their 
places  ;  not  a  few  of  whom,  in  their  turn,  have 
expired  and  been  laid  away  In  the  cemeteries 
of  history. 

Also,  the  world  will  have  its  last  day.  We 
have  the  best  authority  for  saying  that  the 
time  will  come  when  the  human  race  will  dis- 
appear In  a  body  from  the  earth,  and  the  planet 
Itself  and  all  things  therein  be  burned  up.  Also 
the  best  of  authority  for  speaking  of  that  time 
as  a  day,  and  as  the  last  day.  The  Book  has 
spoken — not  merely  the  analogies.  "After  Its 
words  they  speak  not  again,  and  Its  speech 
drops  upon  them." 

Exactly  when  this  greatest  of  last  days  will 
come    we    are    not    Informed.       The    month, 


304  ECCE    TERRA. 

the  year,  the  century,  the  millennium  even,  in 
which  it  will  occur  is  not  foretold.  So  little 
hint  is  given  of  its  exact  locality  in  history 
that  its  actual  advent  will  take  the  world  at 
large  thoroughly  by  surprise.  Like  the  spring- 
ing of  a  snare  or  the  coming  of  a  thief  will  it 
be.  Up  rolls  that  last  sun  from  the  east  as 
brighdy  and  steadily  as  usual.  Men  hie  them 
to  their  business,  their  pleasures,  without  a 
thought  of  change.  The  farmer  is  toiling  in 
his  field,  the  merchant  selling  in  his  store,  the 
sailor  bending  his  sails  for  distant  climes.  The 
child  is  busy  with  its  toys ;  the  youth  at  the 
education  which  he  hopes  will  some  years 
hence  conduct  him  to  honor  and  usefulness ; 
and  manhood  at  far-reaching  plans  which  the 
longest  life  will  hardly  suffice  to  realize.  In  a 
word,  all  the  world,  like  the  sun,  is  moving 
along  the  beaten  highway  of  the  ages  without 
a  thought  of  its  coming  to  an  abrupt  end  a  few 
steps  farther  on.  As  it  was  in  the  days  before 
the  Flood,  when  men  ''  were  eating  and  drink- 
ing, marrying  and  giving  in  marriage,  undl  the 
day  that  Noah  entered  into  the  ark,  and  knew 
not  undl  the  Flood  came  and  took  them  all 
away,  so  shall  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  man 
be." 

Yet  that  last  day  will   not  be  without  Its  har- 
bingers.    It  will   be   immediately  preceded   by 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAM  TIES.        305 

very  troublous  times,  especially  by  a  time  of 
sad  religious  relapse.     The  long-bound  Satan 
will   reappear  among  men.     The  Golden  Age 
will  turn  to  an   age  of  iron.     Wickedness  will 
become  a  vast    majority.     And  why  not?     If 
holy  Adam  could  become  a  sinner  in  his  Par- 
adise ;    if   Lucifer,  son    of   the    morning,  could 
drop   out  of   heaven    into    hell,   and    into   that 
deeper  pit  which  we  call  Satan  ;  if  the  prim- 
itive  Church   could   backslide   pardy   into   Ro- 
manism and  partly  into  annihilation, — why  may 
not  a  world  drop  out  of  a  glorious  millennium? 
Yes,  that  is  what  will  happen.      The  summer 
will  become  winter,   the  shadow  will   go  back 
some  thousands  of  years  on  the  dial  of  Jesus ; 
the  clock  of  the  ages  will  point  again  at  that 
early  time   when    Christians   were   relatively  a 
mere  handful,  and  a  sorely  persecuted  handful 
at  that.     "  Satan  is  loosed,  and  is  gone  out  to 
deceive  the  nations  and  gather  them  together 
to    battle"    against    the    truth.       Hark    to    the 
tramp  of  the  militant  peoples  !     From  the  four 
winds  come  all  the  Antichrists  of  the  period — 
come  in  various  uniforms,  with  various  weapons 
and  banners,  and  with  various  shibboleths  of 
profane   speech,   but  with  one   array  and  pur- 
pose— viz.  to  finally  put  down    religion   in   the 
world.       So    they    compass    the    camp    of    the 
saints    about :     ''  Now    we    have    them !      Let 
20 


306  ECCE    TERRA. 

none  escape.  Give  no  quarter — do  you  hear, 
men  of  Gog  and  Magog? — give  no  quarter F' 

It  is  man's  extremity.  Also  God's  oppor- 
tunity. Ye  can  do  nothing,  O  saints;  there- 
fore stand  still  and  see  the  salvation  of 
God! 

The  forked  fire  leaps  from  the  sky.  Aflame 
are  the  tents  of  assailing  Gog  and  Magog. 
Their  banners  are  meteors,  their  trumpets  are 
dumb,  their  bodies  cover  the  ground  as  char- 
coal statues.  Has  brute  nature  blindly  let  slip 
a  broad  electric  flash  ?  Nay,  from  God  out  of 
heaven  came  the  blazing  judgment,  and  all  the 
Sennacheribs  of  unbelief  and  hostility  have 
gone  suddenly  into  his  presence  to  answer 
for  both  their  deeds  and  their  opinions. 

Whether  this  biblical  picture  means  literal 
war,  or  only  such  attacks  on  religion  as  the 
tongues  and  pens  and  laws  and  examples  and 
social  tactics  of  very  bitter  foes  can  make,  is  not 
important  to  be  decided.  It  certainly  means  at 
least  a  banding  together  of  all  the  evil  elements 
of  the  world  in  a  supreme  effort  to  suppress 
Christianity,  and  a  supreme  defeat  of  that  effort 
by  direct  divine  interference.  It  was  the  Hand 
that  smote  those  sinners  and  sent  them  into  the 
presence  of  the  Judge. 

Into  the  presence  of  the  Judge  !  Well,  they 
have  not  far  to  go.     That  fiery  arrow  was  shot 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        307 

from  God  on  his  way  to  judge  the  world.    "  Be- 
hold !  behold  !   the  Lord  cometh  with  ten  thou- 
sands of  his  saints  to  execute  judgment  upon 
all  and  to  convince  all  that  are  ungodly  among 
them   of   all   their    ungodly   deeds   which    they 
have  ungodly  committed,  and  of  all  their  hard 
speeches  which  ungodly  sinners  have   spoken 
against  him."     And  now  he  is  near.     The  sky 
begins  to  glow  with  awful  lights.     A  broader 
flash,  and,  lo,  the  van  of  the  heavenly  host  ap- 
pears in  a  colossal  form  in  whose  presence  the 
sun  itself  is  dim.     Standing  one   foot  on   sea 
and  one   on  solid  land,  the  mighty  angel  lifts 
his  hand  and  "swears  by  Him  that  liveth  for 
ever  and  ever  that  time   shall  be   no  longer." 
The  great  voice  rings  all  round  the  world.     All 
business  suddenly  stops — all  pleasure  as  well. 
The  tool  drops  from  the  hand  of  the  laborer, 
the  pen  from  the  hand  of  the  writer,  the  sceptre 
from  the  hand  of  the  king.     The  ships  cease  to 
sail,  the  cars  to  rush  and  the  factories  to  hum. 
The  noisy,  restless  world,  that — for  who  knows 
how  many  thousand  years  ? — has  not  ceased  its 
rush  and  din  for  a  single  moment,  is  at  last  as 
still  and  dumb  as  the  grave  itself — a  world  of 
statues  gazing  up  with  such  faces  of  awe  and 
astonishment  as  were  never  yet  seen  in  statues 
— gazing  up  to  see  the  angel  putting  a  trump  to 
his  lips,  to  hear  a  blast  such  as  never  yet  sound- 


308  ECCE    TERRA. 

ed  from  the  swollen  cheeks  of  war  or  from  the 
artillery  of  lightnings  and  storms.  It  sweeps 
from  zone  to  zone.  It  rocks  all  the  oceans.  All 
the  continents  are  atremble.     Like  some  eolden 

o 

dagger  the  potent  melody  pierces  all  the  sealed 
sepulchres,  all  the  deep  sea-caves,  all  the  mau- 
solea  and  catacombs  and  Westminster  Abbeys 
and  Pere  la  Chaises  of  the  world ;  and  wher- 
ever is  the  dust  of  a  human  beine,  wherever  it 
has  been  carried  by  wind  or  wave  or  war,  or  is 
in  process  of  circulation  in  vegetable  or  animal, 
there  the  searching  summons  hunts  it  out  and 
brings  it  to  its  fellows.  Oh,  what  a  resurrec- 
tion !  Oh,  what  hosts  on  hosts,  rising  from  the 
face  of  the  world  like  a  dense  mist !  Here  are 
all  the  human  generations  away  back  to  Adam. 
Not  a  single  missing  link,  not  an  atom  of  hu- 
manity missing.  Nobody  too  insignificant  to 
be  here,  and  nobody  too  great.  Here  are  the 
men  of  whom  the  world  was  not  worthy,  and 
the  men  not  worthy  of  the  world.  Here  are 
the  men  for  whom  nobody  cared,  and  those  who 
cared  for  nobody.  Caucasian  lords  and  Afri- 
can slaves ;  deformed  y^sops  and  symmetrical 
ApoUos ;  Dives  from  out  his  costly  casket,  and 
Lazarus  from  out  his  deal  box ;  kino-s  fresh 
from  the  sculptured  crypts  of  cathedrals  and 
pyramids,  and  subjects  fresh  from  the  clay  of 
the  breezy   country-side ;    famous   men   whose 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        309 

names    bestar    history,    and    plebeian    millions 
who  left  "no  footprints  on  the  sands  of  time;" 
men  weighted  with  untold  tons  of  monumental 
granite,  and  men  scarce  covered  with  the  pity- 
ing sod;  the  men  who  were  burled,  and  the  men 
who  were  burned  and  went  off  in  gases  toward 
the  four  winds  ;  the  lifelike  corpse  that  was  laid 
in  dust  but  yesterday,  and  the  handful  of  dust 
over  which   some   eighty  centuries  have   crept 
away  since  it  breathed  and  walked  ;  babes  that 
saw  but  a  single  sun,  and  patriarchs  frosty  with 
wellnigh  a  millennium  ;  the  wise  virgins  and  the 
foolish,  the  great  saints  and  the  great  sinners; 
prophets    and   aposdes    and   martyrs,    together 
with  heresiarchs  and  antichrists  and  sodomites 
rotten  in  both  body  and  soul  while  yet  above 
ground  ;  the  slain  Gogs  and  Magogs  of  a  few 
moments  a^o,  and  their  ancient  sires  who  were 
drowned  by  the  Flood,  burned  in  Siddim  and 
crushed  by  the  watery  walls  of  the  Red  Sea ; 
the  men  of  faith  who  have  been  counting  on 
such  a  time  as  this,  and  those  who  stoutly  main- 
tained that  a  resurrecdon  Is  incredible  and  im- 
possible, and  even  unthinkable, — here  they  all 
are,  ancients  and  moderns,  Jews  and  Gentiles, 
away  to  the  land  of  SInim.     And  here  are  we 
of  the  sunset  land — you   and   I,  who  long  ago 
were  gathered  to  our  fathers.     Here  In  mid-air, 
for  the  broad  earth-surface  can   no  longc:r  hold 


3IO  ECCE    TERRA. 

the  mighty  multitude  of  its  returning  sons  and 
dauofhters. 

Behold  the  dead !  just  now  such,  never  to  be 
such  again.  But  what  of  those  who  have  never 
died,  but  who  this  morning,  some  fifteen  hun- 
dred millions  strong,  were  in  the  full  blast  of 
their  earthly  ways,  and  now  in  immeasurable 
astonishment  find  themselves  almost  lost  in  the 
deluge  of  old  life  that  is  pouring  in  upon  them 
from  every  quarter? — what  of  them?  The  same 
earth-quaking  blast  that  roused  the  dead  trans- 
formed the  living.  Suddenly  the  material  re- 
fined into  the  spiritual.  All  grossness  and  in- 
firmity vanished.  Age  flashed  back  and  youth 
flashed  forward  into  mid-life,  and  from  the  eyes 
of  mid-life  flashed  the  strano^e  fires  of  an  immor- 
tal  life.  The  maimed  cast  away  their  crutches 
— what  need  they  ?  The  sick  desert  their  beds 
and  hospitals — what  further  use  for  nurses 
and  doctors  ?  The  prisoners  walk  forth  from 
their  prisons  without  challenge — trouble  not 
yourselves  any  further  about  them,  O  ye  jail- 
ers, judges,  jury;  henceforth  God  will  take  both 
them  and  you  in  charge.  And  up,  all  of  you  ! 
defy  gravity  and  join  in  mid-air  the  mutely-ex- 
pectant hosts  of  other  generations. 

Any  among  you  now  to  doubt  the  Last  Day? 
Any  Paines,  at  first  or  second  hand,  to  laugh  at 
the  old  wives'  fables  and  priestcrafts  with  which 


ILL  USTRA  TION  B  V  GREA  T  EXAMPLES.       3  1 1 

only  women  and  children  are  frightened?  Any 
"  philosophers  "  refusing  to  see  in  nature  any- 
thing but  eyeless  law,  and  ready  with  their  dem- 
onstrations that  neither  in  earth  nor  starry  heav- 
ens is  there  aught  requiring  the  supernatural  ? 
Pray,  is  this  day,  with  its  effulgent  angel  and 
earthquake-trump  and  countless  resurrections 
and  transformations,  naturally  evolved  from  the 
primal  fire-mist  ? 

Mutely-expectant,  upward-gazing  billions, 
what  is  that  far  back  in  the  sky?  A  star? 
A  planet?  A  moon?  A  sun?  Still  swells 
the  splendor ;  gradually  divides  into  angels 
and  archangels  and  thrones  and  principalities 
and  powers  in  forms  so  lovely,  so  stately,  so 
resplendent,  as  never  before  shone  on  the  sight 
of  living  men.  And  yet  these  make  but  Httle 
impression  on  that  mutely-expectant,  upward- 
gazing  human  host ;  for  in  the  midst  of  that 
glorious  array  is  seen  a  Form  so  much  more 
glorious  that  no  eye  can  for  one  moment  wan- 
der from  him — human  yet  divine,  and  through 
all  the  divine  splendor  sending  forth  a  some- 
thing that  says.  It  is  He  of  Nazareth.  And 
Pontius  Pilate  knows  him.  Know  him  Annas 
and  Caiaphas  and  all  who  cried  so  vehemently, 
''  Crucify  him  !  crucify  him !"  and  the  soldiers 
who  plaited  the  crown  of  thorns  and  plied  the 
scourge  and  drove  the  nails;  and  the  centurion 


312  ECCE    TERRA. 

who  exclaimed,  "  Truly,  this  is  the  Son  of  God/' 
And  now  his  thought  says  it  again  in  silent  thun- 
ders. Who  is  there  among  all  those  rapt,  up- 
ward-gazing hosts  to  differ  from  him  ?  At  last 
there  is  absolute  uniformity  of  belief  among  men. 
Is  it  really  a  great  white  throne  ?  Is  it  really 
a  Book  of  Remembrance?  Ah,  what  floods  of 
retrospection  now  sweep  through  every  soul ! 
Not  a  thing  that  any  man  has  said  or  done  but 
is  present  with  him  now.  He  is  himself  a  book 
of  remembrance,  also  of  predictions.  Seeing 
so  clearly  what  he  has  been  and  what  he  is,  he 
knows  as  with  a  sunbeam  what  he  zvill  be.  He 
can  go  to  his  own  place  on  the  right  hand  of 
the  Judge  or  on  the  left  without  any  help  from 
the  anorels.  But  who  is  willinor  to  ^o  to  the 
dreadful  left  ?  Once  it  was  a  matter  of  willing- 
ness and  unwillingness ;  it  is  so  no  longer. 
Probation    is   ended.      And   the   anorels   divide 

o 

the  goats  from  the  sheep. 

Behold  the  two  great  parties  into  which  men 
have  always  been  divided  in  God's  sight,  though 
inextricably  mixed  to  human  eyes,  now  stand- 
ing so  far  apart  that  all  eyes  can  see  the  divis- 
ion !  And  the  division  will  need  no  revision. 
No  mistake  here — not  one  sheep  among  the 
goats,  not  one  goat  among  the  sheep.  Per- 
plexed as  some  of  us  were  formerly  to  know 
what  to  think  of  our  neighbors,  what  to  think 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        313 

of  ourselves  even,  such  perplexity  exists  no 
longer. 

"  Depart,  ye  cursed,  into  everlasting  fire  pre- 
pared for  the  devil  and  his  angels."  Does  any 
goat  fail  to  hear?  No.  Does  any  wish  to  obey? 
No.  Is  any  able  to  disobey?  No.  All  that  is 
past,  and  away  sweep  the  multitudes  of  repro- 
bates as  if  driven  by  ten  thousand  whirlwinds — 
away,  and  still  away,  till  on  the  outskirts  of  vis- 
ion the  nio-ht  receives  them. 

"  Come,  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the 
kingdom  prepared  for  you  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world."  And  the  cloudy  throne  begins 
to  ascend.  With  it  ascends  the  satellite  glory 
of  the  angels.  Drawn  as  by  some  mighty  at- 
traction more  commanding  than  that  which 
binds  sphere  to  sphere,  and  which  they  are 
neither  able  nor  willing  to  resist,  the  redeemed 
hosts  follow  on — "  a  multitude  which  no  man 
can  number,  out  of  every  people  and  nation 
and  kindred  and  tongue " — up  through  the 
atmosphere,  up  through  the  planetary  spaces, 
up  through  the  files  of  rejoicing  stars,  up 
through  the  gates  of  pearl. 

On  the  golden  threshold,  O  rearmost  saint, 
linger  for  a  moment  and  look  behind  thee. 
Let  thy  now  celestial  glance  shoot  along  the 
still  luminous  track  by  which  thou  camest  until 
it  arrives  at  the  poor  deserted  earth.     Emptied 


314  ECCE    TERRA. 

of  all  its  people,  rifled  even  as  to  all  its  graves, 
not  a  waif  of  humanity  left  above  ground  or 
beneath  it — houses  all  vacant,  roads  untrav- 
eled,  ships  drifting  idly  on  the  moaning  seas, 
libraries  unconsulted,  churches  without  conore- 
gations,  schools  without  scholars,  palaces  with- 
out nobles  and  kings — see  how  desolate  and 
empty  the  earth  is.  Well,  the  emptier  the  bet- 
ter, for  the  earth  is  old  and  forlorn  and  stained 
and  saturated  throughout  with  the  vices  of  a 
thousand  wicked  generations.  It  seems  wait- 
ing, like  some  refuse  and  decrepit  and  disfig- 
uring pest-house,  for  the  torch  to  be  applied. 
Will  it  be  applied  ?  Suddenly  a  fiery  lance 
stands  quivering  in  the  bosom  of  the  planet. 
In  a  moment  the  lance  becomes  a  volcano,  the 
volcano  a  fiery  sea.  Now  all  the  mountains 
are  volcanoes,  all  the  plains  fiery  seas,  and 
even  the  great  deeps  themselves  are  flaming 
as  if  their  brine  were  oil.  The  rocks  are  mere 
tinder.  The  Arctic  ices  and  snows  are  all 
aflame.  The  whole  geography  is  ablaze,  and 
from  surface  to  centre  is  dissolved  into  lava, 
and  then  into  a  fire-mist  that  surges  outward 
till  it  gathers  into  its  terrible  embrace  the  hap- 
less moon.  On  the  night-sky  of  some  distant 
orb  flames  out  a  new  star.  Neighbor-planets 
are  affrighted  by  the  appearance  of  a  new  sun. 
What  a  furnace  of  stormy  splendors  !     What  a 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        315 

carnival  of  raving,  desperado  gases !  What  a 
babel  of  awful  sounds  !  It  is  the  Armaofeddon 
of  the  elements,  the  jubilee  of  anarchy,  nature's 
Reign  of  Terror,  the  civil  war  of  demons. 

Is  that  far-gazing  saint  surprised  at  what  he 
sees?  Not  at  all.  He  has  long  been  looking 
forward  to  such  a  consummation.  Not  because 
he  has  been  taught  by  the  chemist  that  the  earth 
is  made  up  of  combustibles  and  supporters  of 
combustion.  Not  because  some  have  assured 
him  that  the  earth  will  gradually  contract  its 
orbit  and  at  last  wheel  into  the  sun.  Not  be- 
cause some  physicists  have  told  as  science  that, 
sooner  or  later,  it  cannot  but  be  that  the  earth, 
amid  the  distractions  of  innumerable  attractions, 
will  collide  with  some  other  orb,  and  so  confla- 
gration result  from  the  concussion  of  the  two 
mighty  flints.  Not  because  he  knew  that  every 
now  and  then  some  orb  had  suddenly  blazed 
into  view,  and  then  swooned  away  through  all 
the  colors  that  belong  to  a  decaying  conflagra- 
tion, and  even  that  innumerable  stars  are  only 
worlds  on  fire.  Ah,  no !  But  it  is  because  he 
has  read  it  in  the  Book.  With  its  telescope  he 
saw  it  ages  ago.  Borne  by  the  prophets  to 
their  Pisgahs  of  oudook,  he  had  seen  the 
"heavens  passing  away,  and  the  elements 
meltinor  with  fervent  heat,  and  the  eartli  and 
all  things  therein  burning  up  " — seen  it  not  as 


3l6  ECCE    TERRA. 

the  suicide  of  Nature,  who,  Hke  Dido,  had  built 
her  own  funeral-pyre,  but  as  the  execution  of  a 
sentence  by  the  supernatural  on  a  polluted 
world,  the  fitting  end  of  a  theatre  in  which  sin 
and  shame  have  been  ever  enacting-  tragedies. 
Let  it  burn.  The  Hand  is  in  it.  The  w^ill  of  a 
just  God  was  the  kindling  torch.  And  he  turns 
and  crosses  the  golden  threshold  to  join  his  com- 
panions in  their  song  of  ''Just  and  true  are  thy 
ways,  thou  King  of  saints." 

The  Neiv  Earth. 
Is  the  history  of  the  earth  at  last  finished  ? 
Have  we  seen  its  last  chapter — nay,  its  last 
verse,  its  last  letter,  its  last  period  ?  Have  the 
mad  flames  scourged  it  back  into  nothinorness  ? 
Who  says  that?  Not  science,  not  the  Bible. 
If  that  saint  who  just  now  saw  the  earth  burnt 
up  will,  after  a  time,  look  forth  again  from  the 
earthward  gate  of  heaven,  especially  if  he  will 
launch  forth  from  it  a  space,  he  will  see — what? 
Certainly  a  world  wheeling  on  the  old  orbit. 
Certainly  sun,  moon  and  stars  shining  in  its 
sky  as  of  old.  Certainly  people  and  occupa- 
tions and  the  rush  and  lightning  of  great  enter- 
prises. But,  after  all,  he  will  see  what  is,  in  the 
main,  a  new  world.  Behold  "  the  new  heavens 
and  the  new  eardi  in  which  dwelleth  righteous- 
ness !"     A   sky  which,  perhaps   through    some 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        31/ 

change  in  the  constitution  of  the  air  or  of  the 
eyes  that  look  up  to  it,  has  been  transfigured 
into  new  wonderfulness  and  splendor.  An  earth 
beneath  that  rejoices  and  sings   and  claps   its 
hands.     It  is  no  longer  the  wild  and  disorderly 
frontier  of  the  kingdom,  no  longer  a  nest  of 
treasons  and  insurrections,  no  longer  the  home 
of  partially  reconstructed  rebels,  as  it  was  even 
in  the  millennium.     At  last  it  is  peopled  perma- 
nently by  perfectly  holy  beings.     Those  miser- 
able ups  and  downs  of  religion  so  long  seen  in 
individuals  and  society ;  the  alternate  triumph 
and  defeat ;    the  doleful  mixture  of  good  and 
bad,  of  loyalty  and  disloyalty,  of  gold  and  silver 
and  iron  and  clay,  in  even  the  best, — are  alto- 
gether and  for  ever  things  of  the  past.     Some- 
how, as  in  some  city  a  great  conflagration  with 
its   numberless   fiery   tongues  licks   cleanly  up 
the  vile  tenements  and  dens  where  squalor  and 
vice  have  rioted  and  rotted,  and  makes  way  for 
boulevards  and  palaces ;  so,  somehow,  all  that 
is  refuse  and  disfiguring  in  character  has  disap- 
peared from  the  earth  in  that  tremendous  cruci- 
ble, and  Medea's  old  father,  full  of  wrinkles  and 
aches,  has  come  out  of  the  dissolving  frames  a 
young  Apollo.     At  last  holiness   reigns — holi- 
ness   complete,    universal,    permanent.      This 
trinity   carries   an   outward  as  well  as   inward 
paradise    in    its    bosom.       Glorious    souls   are 


3l8  ECCE    TERRA. 

housed  In  glorious  bodies.  The  grim  diseases, 
the  truculent  deaths,  that  all  along  the  groan- 
ing past  have  so  haunted  palace  and  cabin,  are 
gone  for  ever.  Gone  for  ever  are  the  old  want, 
war,  oppression,  heresy,  misgovernment,  unbe- 
lief: one  may  hunt  the  wide  world  through  for 
a  single  specimen,  and  hunt  In  vain.  The  spe- 
cies are  extinct.  They  will  never  appear  on  the 
earth  again,  by  evolution  or  otherwise. 

In  harmony  with  this  state  of  things  is  the 
material  environment.  Physical  nature  has  al- 
ways taken  Its  cue  from  the  moral — does  not 
forget  to  do  It  now.  Ah,  what  landscapes!  Ah, 
what  fruits  and  flowers  !  Ah,  what  miracles  of 
material  beauty  and  grandeur  beyond  the  wild- 
est dreams  of  our  poets  and  painters !  The 
deserts  are  all  gone — gone  all  the  thorns  and 
briers  and  swamps  and  miasms  and  other  ugly 
and  deadly  things  that  so  deformed  the  face  of 
the  old  world  and  conformed  It  to  the  character 
of  Its  people ;  and  In  their  stead,  lo,  a  setting 
worthy  of  the  gem,  a  home  fit  for  the  peers  of 
angels !  And  a  jubilee  happiness  and  science 
spring  up  as  naturally  in  such  circumstances  as 
do  the  jubilee  palms  and  flowers  in  that  glori- 
ous soil.  Hall,  Age  of  Gold  without  any  dross! 
Hail,  Day  that  has  neither  night  nor  clouds ! 
Hail,  New  Jerusalem  freshly  alighted  from  the 
skies  in  every  land ! 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  GREAT  EXAMPLES.        319 

Whence  this  new  state  of  things?  Who 
made  these  royal  people?  Who  built  their 
palatial  home  and  furnished  it  so  superbly? 
It  was  not  a  windfall.  Almighty  chance  had 
nothine  to  do  with  it.  The  laws  of  nature  had, 
doubdess,  soinethmg  to  do  with  it,  but  they  no 
more  evoked  this  tabernacle  of  God  and  New 
Jerusalem  out  of  the  fire-mists  of  the  Last  Day 
than  they  did  the  old  heavens  and  earth  out 
of  a  chaos  of  fiery  elements.  "And  I  saw  the 
New  Jerusalem  coming  down  from  God:"  this 
is  the  last  philosophy  and  ultimate  science  and 
true  history- root  of  the  glorious  "new  earth  in 
which  dwelleth  righteousness." 

Such  are  some  of  the  lofder  summits  of 
supernaturalism  in  the  earth.  They  are  only 
the  visible  outjuttings,  from  a  misty  ocean,  of 
a  mighty  condnent  that  stretches  away  in  un- 
broken sequence  through  all  the  abysses  and 
over  all  the  parallels  and  meridians  of  earthly 
fact  and  history.  There  are  no  real  lacunae 
whatever.  From  the  moment  when,  at  his 
word,  the  substance  of  the  earth  flashed  out  of 
nothing,  up  to  that  of  its  reconstrucdon  into  the 
new  heavens  and  the  new  earth,  God  has  fol- 
lowed each  ultimate  atom  as  an  equatorial  fol- 
lows a  star — not  only  with  his  watchful  eye, 
but  with  his  forceful  right  hand.  His  throne  is 
set  up  in  every  mote  that  kindles  in  the  sun- 


320  ECCE    TERRA. 

beam.  The  currents  of  his  will  course  through 
all  the  veuis  and  arteries  of  being.  Heat,  light, 
gravity  and  every  other  physical  force  wear  his 
harness  and  feel  his  spur.  All  the  highways 
and  byways  of  history,  which  are  so  trampled 
by  armies  of  second  causes,  have,  side  by  side 
with  each  tiny  footprint  of  the  creature,  the 
gigantic  footprint  of  the  Creator.  He  domes- 
ticates In  all  the  homes  of  the  world,  transacts 
in  all  its  business,  enacts  in  all  its  laws,  advises 
in  all  Its  cabinets,  marches  with  all  its  armies, 
as  well  as  sanctifies  In  all  Its  solemn  temples. 
Even  the  free  will  and  heart  of  man,  however 
erratic  and  far-going  their  orbits,  never  pass 
beyond  that  all-encompassing  firmament  of 
which  his  fingers  are  the  galaxies.  Creating 
or  suppressing,  constructing  or  dissolving,  pla- 
cing or  displacing,  expanding  or  contracting, 
hastening  or  retarding,  reining  or  spurring, 
helping  or  hindering — helping  all  right  and 
hinderine  from  all  wrone — the  Hand  Is  work- 
ing  all  things  after  the  counsel  of  Its  own  will, 
through  all  the  zeniths  and  nadirs,  through  all 
the  latitudes  and  longitudes,  through  all  the 
pasts  and  futures,  as  well  as  present,  of  the 
earth — always  as  a  benevolent  providence, 
never  as  a  ^heartless  fate — the  one  almighty, 
omnipresent  optimism  of  a  world  which  but  for 
him  would  have  been  a  pessimism. 


eion  Theological  Scminary-Speei 


1    1012  01102  0221 


DATE  DUE 

:rpR  ■  Z 

mc:: 

Demco.  Inc.  38-293 

